Pokémon: Rise of Legends Arc 1: No Ordinary Genes
by Guardian54
Summary: Every Legend has a beginning, follow John, Liara, James and Tali as they embark on theirs, the legend of the Gardevoir who will be the Ultimate War Machine. Arc 1 focuses on the gathering of the crew. Eventual Human/Gardevoir, Human/Froslass Later.
1. New Friends, New Skills

A/N: WARNING: This fic IS one of the past lives of John, Liara, James and Tali, so don't be alarmed when other familiar names start turning up.

Reading my Supreme Commander: Mass Effect/Koprulu Sector/ME2/Reclaimers series is **NOT required** for understanding this fic. This can easily stand on its own, however, if you have red the aforementioned series, please recognize that this is one of the crew's past incarnations playing out and don't nag me about putting up Star Wars cross, ME 3, Heart of the Swarm, etc. until ME 3 (and HOTS) actually comes out. Even then I might only factor it in while writing the SW crossover, since it will take a while before important DLC packs come out. January 26 to September 7 was a hell of a long time for ME 2's LOTSB to wait… and March 29 for Arrival? You get my point, I'd have to wait something on the order of a year before I start writing ME3 stuff, but I could get to work on HOTS around probably June 2012 since the ETA is said to be "around 1 year from March 2011" and we all know how Blizzard works… SLOWLY.

Do not fret, since this will help (along with the C&C fic I have planned to write after this if HOTS isn't out by then) fill in some of the holes that Crystal will be mentioning about some of their many pasts.

* * *

><p>Chapter 1: New Friends, New Skills<p>

_Kanto, 2941_

"Why are we moving Daddy?" A diminutive figure asked a much taller one, looking up at him with big, red, innocent eyes. "What's wrong with Hoenn?"

Her father looked around, on alert for any threats, just like her mother was doing. But for a few details, they were easily mistakable for humans, with the fame their species had, the natural camouflage was critical, especially with so many humans wearing their costumes nowadays "Your mother says your future demands that we come to Kanto, personally, I'm glad we're coming to an area with a relatively limited native Pokémon selection… though there's always a few foreign species on the loose thanks to some of the stupider trainers."

"Why should my future demand we come to Kanto?" The young child grumbled as she tripped over a branch and stumbled a bit.

"The future works in strange and mysterious ways, Liara, but from what I have seen, it is imperative that we move to Kanto, and so, here we are." Her mother stated distractedly, walking along with her dress levitating behind her. She could just levitate, but walking allowed one to feel vibrations in the ground better. Psychic Scanning didn't cover ALL things, after all.

Liara rolled her eyes under her helmet-like layer of green hair. It was polarized so she could see out but the reverse was not true. In combat, it also solidified with bio-electric fields (the measure of this is commonly called HP) to protect her. "Great, what am I supposed to do here? Get caught by a trainer and go on to save the world?"

"You'll do a lot more than that, Liara, just wait and see." Her father said kindly, patting his daughter on the back head gem, one of the two that clearly distinguished their kind from humans. It was technically part of the skull bone structure, and served as protection as well as a Psi-focusing organ on the inside.

Liara sighed "What can I do with this condition of mine? Most Ralts would be nearing level five by a year of age, I'm still at level three."

"But you know your power levels are about right, Liara, so we can conclude that every time you level up you get more than the typical ability boosts, though it will be harder to level up." Her mother answered, looking at a map she'd bought under the guise of being a mute human. Since Gardevoir dresses were removable (though they assisted in combat by serving as conduits for bioelectric aka HP fields) and exchangeable for other clothes, the chest and back gems were more flat plates as opposed to the humans' misconception of spikes, and a bit of psychic influence easily tipped the minds of most non-trainers, it had been easy. Of course, they'd paid using money they'd found dropped on sidewalks and the like, stealing was not a good idea when trying to blend in.

"Thanks Mom." Liara said, after some more walking "Where are we headed?"

Her father, as one would guess a Gallade, shrugged "We'll settle down near Pallet Town, My old trainer, and thus I, know Professor Oak pretty well. I contacted the Professor and my old trainer a while ago and they said they'll be very happy to let us settle in the area and to make sure people don't disturb us."

After a while more of boring walking, since Liara's mother couldn't teleport them without having been to a place or been given enough panoramic photos of the area before, the little Ralts asked "What do you think of trainers?"

Her father chuckled "Well, we're probably among the luckiest Pokémon, since we can sense their thoughts and personalities, so we don't normally get stuck with anyone we don't like. Don't go with a trainer until you are sure they are the type of person you want to work with for years. That's the best advice I can give you." It was frowned upon for Pokémon to just dump their trainers by leaving their Pokéballs (which could only contain you if you let it) unless they were truly intolerable "Also, when you're probing their feelings, get a feel of whether or not they'll be fine with you refusing to stay in your Pokéball, don't go with anyone who wouldn't be fine with it."

* * *

><p><em>Pallet Town, Kanto, 2941<em>

"Nice Gallade costume!" Someone commented as the Gallade walked down the main road of the little town that hosted Professor Oak's famous laboratory. The male grinned in response and gave the kid a thumb-up.

Hannah Shepard was outside mowing her lawn at the moment. She glanced up at the Gallade walking down the road, then she did a double-take "Ares? What are you doing here?"

"Benicia said that Liara's future demands we move here." The Gallade explained to his former trainer "How are the kids?" (A/N: yes I did use the closest name to Benezia that I could find)

The raven-haired beauty, still young at a mere thirty-five, shrugged "They're doing great, my job at the lab pays well enough to support us all. You have a mate and child already? Wow, seems like only five years ago that I said goodbye to you in Hoenn…"

There was an awkward silence before Ares replied slowly "…It WAS five years ago."

"Oh… right… wait, Benicia, as in that Gardevoir you were mooning over since you were both Kirlias?"

Ares grinned happily "Yep, we're completely happy together, one little girl already and we're planning for more kids later."

"Well congratulations Ares, so her name is Liara, right? Nice name, sounds familiar from somewhere. John's out studying Pokémon with Oak's directions and James is busy playing with the Snorunt we got him for his fifteenth birthday."

A distant shout of "TALI, NOOOO!" reached the ears of the two old friends, and they chuckled before going inside to talk more.

"Benicia should be here right about… now." Ares said, grinning as Benicia appeared next to him, teleporting. "Hey baby… where's Liara?"

"Embarking on the path to her destiny, I cannot see where it shall lead in the end, for some reason, but I can see great happiness and heartbreak eventually, though the latter will be overwhelming, she'll find more happiness and peace along this path than any other. This bout of playing in the forest should start the dominoes rolling…" She checked the watch she had on outside her green elbow-length glove "now."

* * *

><p><em>Forest Near Pallet Town, Kanto, 2941<em>

_Who is that?_ The thought ran through the curious little Ralts' head as she peeked out from her hiding spot in a bush. Most Pokémon were relatively docile creatures, since predation was difficult as prey species (i.e. Pikachu, Rattata, etc.) had evolved so many abilities that all species were at least partially photosynthetic or chemosynthetic, even if they were not grass-types. _And why is he feeding Pokémon out in the wild? Doesn't he realize most of us are dangerous?_

The fifteen-year-old boy was fairly good-looking by any standards, kneeling on one knee to watch the Rattatas as he fed them and observed their behaviour. He also gave off a familiar air, though Liara couldn't quite place it, and an air of comfort, security, kindness, and strength. "Hey guys, how's the last season been?"

The rodents looked up at him "Ra, tat, rat, tata." One answered.

The boy stood up, he looked nearly as tall as Liara's father "Heh, that's good, well, I'll need to go soon, this is probably the last time I'll be back, see you guys!" The rats waved and watched him move out of sight before scurrying back to their nests. Sure, most Pidgeottos, Pidgeots, Spearows and Fearows would not attack a large congregation of Rattatas because it was risky and photosynthesis could keep them alive more or less anyways, but better safe than sorry. Liara followed the curious boy though the underbrush, until he stopped and she froze. Turning around, the boy narrowed his eyes and scanned the plants around them, she felt a sudden feeling of fear and determination to frighten a threat away from him through her gems.

"Who's there? Come out where I can see you." John Shepard growled menacingly, hoping it wasn't anything too dangerous, there usually wasn't anything really dangerous in the forest, but there was always a risk. Predators generally got bolder the more frightened you were, right now he was in a small meadow with clear line of sight, good defensive terrain for any melee combat, though long-range work would be safer in dense forest.

Liara felt that this boy wasn't really as mean as he sounded in that moment, and something compelled her to approach the human, this might be an interesting experience… Her parents had told her that interacting with decent humans wasn't so bad, and she could always teleport away if need be. While she was thinking it over, the boy spoke again.

"I won't hurt you if you don't hurt me."

She could sense his sincerity, and that sealed the deal "Ral, Alts, Ralts." She called.

John Shepard looked around a bit before he walked over to what looked like a green bush, with two eyes with red irises. "Hey little guy, what are you doing in Kanto? I thought Ralts and their evolutions normally live only in Hoenn and Sinnoh."

"_My parents and I moved here, what's your name?"_ Liara thought to the boy as she stepped out of the bush's alcove, revealing her two head gems and white-dressed body. The uniform was a part of the Ralts line and its evolutions, reinforced bio-electric fields, and could be removed, and it auto-cleaned itself over time, a wonderful piece of equipment…

John's eyebrows went up in surprise, "Whoa, you can think messages directly to my mind? Can all psychic types do it? I'm John Shepard by the way."

"_It's the first time I've tried."_ Liara explained _"I don't know how I'm able to do it clearly, but it might be something up with you…"_ She frowned behind her polarized screen of hair _"sorry, that was a bit rude. My name's Liara."_

"Do you have a last name?" John asked, he knew that many humanoid Pokémon had surnames, and that Ralts-line Pokémon inherited their names from their mothers. "The last Ralts-line I knew did."

Liara nodded vigorously, her bio-electric fields holding her hair in place helmet-style as she moved her head _"Yeah, I'm Liara T'Soni, nice to meet you, John Shepard."_

John's eyebrows shot up again "T'Soni? As in Benicia T'Soni's child?"

"_Yep, how do you know my mommy?"_

"First ten years of my life, before I got into the habit of studying Pokémon with Professor Oak, I was regularly babysat by Ares, he was a Gallade by the way, and he would always be Benicia this or Benicia that after your mother visited. She was more or less wild, he was still training with my mother."

Liara's mouth visibly gaped _"You knew my daddy too? Wow, so you're… one of Hannah Shepard's sons?"_

"Yeah, so, what do you want to know about your parents?"

"_Did daddy have a hard time levelling up?"_ Liara asked in a childish voice, raising her head far enough to look the human boy in the eye with big puppy eyes.

John knelt down so he was eye level with the diminutive Ralts "No, and according to what I heard… your mother didn't either. Why, do you have a hard time levelling up?"

Liara's head drooped and she slumped _"Yeah…"_

"Maybe my mother will know something, she's still one of the better researcher/battler combos out there, well, she was a great battler until she said goodbye to your father in Hoenn, where your mother lived, so they could be together. Ares had always been her most powerful Pokémon."

"_Sure, where's your mother right now?"_ Liara asked, for some reason, she was inclined to trust this boy, sensing he meant her no harm.

"At home, probably, we live in Pallet Town, pretty close to here, want to go?" He asked, extending his arm to form a sort of ramp.

Liara climbed up onto the boy's shoulder _"Lead the way."_

* * *

><p><em>Hannah Shepard's Home, Pallet Town, 2941<em>

"They should be here soon." Benicia commented after they'd talked about the past five years. "We should go, don't want to get in the way. I am under the impression that they'll have a rollicking adventure together with time."

"Well, drop by every so often!" Hannah said, standing up to see the couple off.

Ares smirked as he wiped his blades clean of icing (they hadn't felt like looking for a cake knife) and retracted them into his elbows "Oh we will, especially after Liara becomes a regular visitor of your house."

"Well, I'll see you soon…" Hannah said before the couple teleported away.

John came walking up to the door five minutes later with a small child with an abnormally large head standing on his shoulder and hugging his head. Closer examination of the child revealed the head gems and white overalls typical of the Ralts species, for whom the proportions were normal. The boy sighted his mother out on the porch and waved his other arm, so that Liara wasn't shaken around "Hey Mom! Liara here says she has difficulty levelling up and I was wondering if you knew anything about it."

"Well, me and Professor Oak recently discovered that some Pokémon have a combination of genes that enable them to be much stronger than normal. They take twice as much experience to level up but will gain one and a half times the benefit. That means at level one hundred, she will have the power level associated with one hundred and fifty levels." Hannah explained. Liara jumped for joy at that "Of course, it will take her a long time to hit that level. It would do her good to learn other skills in the meantime. Ares and Benicia dropped by earlier, and they're fine with Liara learning some human skills. It wouldn't hurt if she learnt to speak English, though I never taught Ares until he was at Kirlia, as she'll take a while to get to Kirlia. She might want to learn other skills too, so Ares and Benicia are hoping she can learn some other skills."

Liara tried to think a message to Hannah, then frowned, finding that she was unable to do so. _John, can you translate? It seems I haven't learnt enough to talk to anyone else telepathically…_

John smiled warmly at the kid "Sure" He looked up at his mother again "Liara says she hasn't learnt enough to talk to anyone else telepathically…"

* * *

><p><em>Hannah Shepard's Home, Pallet Town, 2941<em>

James and John Shepard were sitting on the waiting bench in Oak's lab before the Professor came back from scanning both their Pokémon, jaw dropped, drool moving down one side of his mouth and one eye twitching alarmingly. He gave a little spasm before wiping his mouth and stuttering "How… HOW?"

"How what?" John and James asked, noting out of the corners of their eyes that Tali had used Powder Snow to make a snowball before passing it to Liara to throw, since the Ralts had longer arms and better throwing ability than the Snorunt's short, stubby grey limbs.

With a snowball meeting the back of his head the Professor seemed to come out of his daze "Look at your Pokémon's stats boys, I've already got a training regimen in mind for them. Only Liara has the condition allowing half again the power increase per level she gains, but both seem to lack the standard genetic markers that restrict total Effort Value point ratings to 510 total. In other words, both can have 252 EV points in each stat."

John and James' mouths opened and shut several times before John said "…Wow." James nodded rapidly in agreement at that.

"And look here at their Individual Values!" Oak gestured toward the readings in shock "Thirty-one points, both of them, across the board for the six rated stats that affect battles. You basically have two genetically perfect specimens here. I feel sorry for them when they grow up, no doubt they will end up being obscenely attractive to their own species…"

* * *

><p><em>Three Years Later… Hannah Shepard's Home, Pallet Town, Kanto, Spring of 2944<em>

"That wire should carry fifty milliamps with a coil resistance of 180 Ohms on 9 volts, which should be good for powering this particular control circuit." Liara muttered as she twisted two wires together just before John applied a bit of solder. They had both become sort of techno-maniacs, and according to John and his classmates Liara was a genius. John had never told anyone that Liara was still wild and was NOT his Pokémon, despite spending most of her days inside his home. She typically bunked with him, curled up on his bed, for some reason, though it meant he slept lightly now, scared that he'd roll over and crush her or something (she'd snorted at his worry and stated that Pokémon were tough creatures). John, like his brother, was basically the perfect student, with full scholarships waiting for both in Pokémon Studies at the best university in the world, the Kanto Continental Pokémon Institute. They were good at athletics, academics, art, technical things… everything.

"Sno-RUNT!" Tali (clan Zorah, Liara had found out) waddled over and used Icy Wind (she was after all level 14 despite having devoted most of her time to learning in the past three years, following her trainer's example) on the solder to cool it down quickly so that they could continue with the progress of the job, before going back to modifying one of the parts they already had completed to get it to run better. All four of the people working in the garage were wearing protective gloves and goggles as they worked away. Well, Tali wasn't, but that was because Snorunts naturally possessed an armoured shell with a polarized visor (ergo they seemed to have grey-ish faces). Snorunts could remove the visor (which was complete with an almost cat-flap like mouth) and shell if they wished to. Underneath it, they didn't look so different form typical human children. The cellular and structural rearrangement to evolve to Glalie was extreme, the other choice, on the other hand… was NOT. Tali didn't want to learn English simply because she didn't know which she wanted to evolve into and how much she'd have to re-learn the language.

A few hours later, they assembled the outer shell of the construct and stood back, watching their creation cool and dry "Ah, it's nice that we're done building our own model of Taser, Liara, you should take it with you, didn't you say you wanted to go fishing with your mom? There might be dangerous water Pokémon in the lake…" John looked down at his familiar.

Liara shrugged and started talking, using her mouth. Her voice sounded childish, but then again she was a child. Most people around town still hadn't realized she wasn't a human girl since she usually wore a baseball cap that hid her nearly flat, elongated hexagonal gems, just so that no one tried to catch her. After all, Ralts were rare Pokémon (mostly because Gardevoir and Gallades tended to provide good parental care and Gardevoir (plural) had Future Sight) so finding one on its own, complete with not being very high level and having Liara's condition… was a godsend to any trainer worthy of his license. "I think Mom can handle them, but if you insist then sure…"

* * *

><p><em>Lake near Pallet Town, Kanto, Spring of 2944<em>

She dug in her feet and PULLED… "So when fishing the most important thing is probably that…" Benicia' eyes went googly when she gave on final tug on the rod and the thing she'd caught literally exploded out of the water. They'd been expecting to find trout, pike, or any number of the non-Pokémon animals. They'd found what seemed to be an elder, experienced Crawdaunt instead. "Ah crap…" was all she really had time to say before grabbing Liara and diving out of the way of the much-larger-than-normal Crawdaunt. "I really should have learnt Thunderbolt through that TM, but this will work, watch me, Liara!" She called commandingly before dodging under the gigantic lobster's first strike.

"Use Fighting-type moves on Dark-types!" Liara reminded her mother.

Pokémon were termed by human scientists "One extreme of evolution, prioritizing power over reproduction." Whereas typical animals such as carp, pike, lobsters and crayfish mostly leant toward reproduction, being r-selected, Pokémon were the ultimate in K-selection. In fact, predation among Pokémon was so difficult and even the best predatory Pokémon made so few kills before the arrival of humans thousands of years ago on their colony ships brought easier prey that all Pokémon were to an extent autotrophic. Still, even with the new animals wandering around, most Pokémon were autotrophic, but some took advantage of the increase in food to reduce the time they spent literally vegetating around (after all, it was boring to do nothing).

Benicia charged up a Focus Blast before firing the ball of energy at the large crayfish which was scuttling forward for another strike, it jumped up over the ball, probably the result of training with a trainer. Said trainer must have been quite stupid, this critter wasn't bad… Benicia threw up a screen with Magical Leaf before teleporting to another location on the battlefield. Then she slashed away at the critter's carapace with the leaves, though it barely did anything, while charging another Focus Blast. What followed was a flurry of exchanges of moves, a Hyper Beam from the giant, highly evolved lobster blowing a huge crater in the grass, and multiple Magical Leaf strikes and Focus Blast shots lashing out from Benicia, most of the former doing little against the beast's thick carapace. Focus Blast balls were dodged or taken cover from by the beast as it fired back with water-type and dark-type attacks that she evaded, careful not to let anything come near her child while charging one Focus Blast after the next. It was effectively her only choice, since Dark-types were immune to Psychic-type moves, unless… She grabbed a rock with her mind and raised it above the giant charging lobster before letting it fall.

The Crawdaunt barely had time for a look of horror directed upward toward the boulder before a cloud of dust went up at the impact site. Benicia frowned, she couldn't sense Dark-types reliably with her psychic probes (Ghost-types were easier, about as easy as other Psychic-types), but something might be up… "Liara, stay back." She growled, looking around, eyes scanning the meadow surrounding the lake for threats. She grimaced in worry, the boulder wasn't moving, and that Crawdaunt was definitely strong enough to take the hit without fainting judging by its size…

The Focus Blast ball she had hovering over one hand fizzled out of existence as she gurgled in pain and her daughter screamed from where she was standing next to the cart they'd brought with them, frozen in fear. Liara watched as blood leaked from her mother's mouth before a large claw, fixed around her whole torso, having slammed into her and crushed down from behind, threw her at a tree. Benicia smashed into the trunk unceremoniously, sliding down the trunk as the obviously injured lobster approached, one pair of legs snapped off at the base from the smashing blow they had tried and failed to withstand. "That Crunch should put you in your place. I was just living round here looking for food and minding my own business, but hey, I guess a nice juicy Gardevoir and her kid make a better meal than that bait you used, eh?" The critter growled in Pokéspeak at the paralyzed Gardevoir propped up against the tree before bringing his right claw down in a hard swing at Benicia's neck. Thanks to his experience, his blow into her back, between her shoulder blades, had temporarily numbed her body to her mind's commands.

There was no time to dodge, so it was quite a surprise for both parties when the swing merely embedded itself deeply within the tree, shaking off quite a few of the flower petals still attached to the tall, sturdy plant. These were a lot more durable than their Earth counterparts, to be expected considering how much abuse they had to take form the forest denizens… ergo the tree didn't simply shear in half at the Crunch used on it. Benicia found herself more or less lying on her side as a certain little Ralts (of course physically much larger than when they first moved in, natural considering she'd had a few years to grow) bowled her over in a Tackle. Her damaged bio-electric fields barely felt the small hit, having absorbed almost all the damage of the Crunch, to a Psychic-type like her, a human Pokédex would rate the hit at 240 rating points worth of damage standard. That was enough so that one more hit like that would have knocked her out, and probably a few more hits would have overcome the emergency bio-electric field regeneration mechanism called Fainting and killed her. If it wasn't for Benicia having an extremely high set of HP and Defence scores it would have been a one-hit knockout. She had Individual Values of 31 in HP, Defence and Special Attack, as well as IVs over 25 in the other three commonly rated states. Those were one of the main reasons why she'd travelled with Hannah for a while as a tag-along, so that trainers wouldn't try to catch her, thinking she was one of Hannah's Pokémon.

"Stop hurting my Mommy!" Liara shouted in plain English, standing in front of the Crawdaunt and looking up at its eyes, despite the fact that each of its pincers was larger than her whole body.

The Crawdaunt's jaw dropped and its eyes bulged in shock "Your mother, a full-grown Gardevoir, couldn't take me on, what makes you think you can, you little brat? I'll make your death quick and relatively painless if you get out of the way right now."

"I'll fight you!" Liara announced, knowing full well what a stupid match this was. The Crawdaunt was most likely something on the order of level seventy, whereas her mother had been sixty-something and herself level ten (though with power levels roughly on par with level 15) on her last check-up at Oak's lab. She really wished her father was here, with all the training he had in his time with Hannah he could have taken on this beast without too much trouble. Her mother had always been wild, though she followed Hannah around for quite a while. She had refused a few TMs that Hannah had offered, in disc and manual formats. Normal TMs (A/N: I'm using the ones from the mangas, the cube-thingies that split down the middle) used psychic influence to build the needed mental connections for use of moves, allowing immediate learning. However, most trainers did not know that use of those restricted the number of moves a Pokémon could know at a time as the psychic influence was not good for long-term memory retention of techniques. The discs were more suitable for higher-intellect Pokémon to learn many, many moves, and the manuals were good when disc players were not available. Her mother had declined because she liked being "wholly" wild. Liara was now wondering if she should have spent the past years on levelling up and watching the TM film for Thunderbolt instead of learning human schoolwork.

There was one good thing though, as the Crawdaunt's maw opened wide to laugh its ass off, she raised her Taser and fired directly into its mouth… It screeched in pain and attempted to chomp down on the weapon she'd basically shoved into its maw convulsively, but Tali had engineered the structure of the external shell well, and it lasted until the Crawdaunt became a limp, twitching mass of smoking flesh. Liara finally retracted the bolt for the TASER with the auto-reel system and drew it out from the thing's slimy maw.

Benicia had gotten over her paralysis and gotten shakily back to her feet, not even about to try the stereotypical Gardevoir hover, as she charged another Focus Blast and shot it into the mouth of the unconscious water Pokémon, snarling in rage. Then she grabbed another boulder with her mind and hit the thing over the head repeatedly before a second Focus Blast overcame the bio-electric fields and blew half the critter's head off. She sighed in relief before looking at her daughter, who was changing the batteries (also designed by Tali) of her weapon, sitting on top of the cart "Thanks, Liara…" which seemed to have… "how many compartments are in that cart?" She asked, her green eyebrows raised in inquiry.

"I'm not really sure, a lot? We have all sorts of stuff in there, let's put that big, half-toasted lobster on top and take it over to John's house, we can have a big dinner ready for Daddy and Hannah when they come back from helping Oak out with whatever project he's doing right now, John and James can help you cook or maybe watch Mir. Tali can help me with maintenance of the gear…"

Benicia picked her baby up and nuzzled her head in relief, conscious that the lethal implement of death she had was pointed away from either of them "Alright, baby, let's get the thing moving…"

Now that the bio-electric fields were gone and residual Dark energy dissipated, Benicia could move the heavy corpse onto the solidly built cart with her mind with a simple Psychic. Then they strapped it down with some rope Liara pulled out of a compartment somewhere… and Liara sat on top of the corpse, looking around warily, holding her Taser at the ready, turning her head around every once in a while to check behind them. "Coast's clear." She reported after a while of walking and looking around.

Benicia nodded before frowning "I didn't expect you to be so casual about killing… even if this thing attacked us first. A lesson though: beware the move Dig, always."

"I've played a lot of shooter games with John, James and Tali, Mom, I'm not too scared of a little bit of blood and some body parts flying around anymore, and I know to look out for subterranean enemies." Liara replied, adjusting her grip on her Taser. "The thing did quite a number on the casing… me and Tali might have to re-forge it."

"How did you forge it in the first place? Is there a blast furnace in Hannah's garage or something?" Benicia was wondering if she should tell Hannah to shut to engineering operation down or persuade her to use her sizeable inheritance and stored earnings to expand her sons' operation into a business.

"Nah, we asked to borrow the next-door neighbour's Growlithe for the job, when we had all the parts we needed to forge ready and waiting, he was pretty decent level so could get the job done. We noticed Tali was missing halfway in and James wandered off to find her. Turns out she'd shut herself in the refrigerator in fear of the Fire-type." Liara explained. Snorunt were not as robust as their evolutions, particularly Froslasses, and relied on their environment "suit" as the "crew" called it more to survive. While a Glalie was built into its environment control systems, and a Froslass didn't really need them, a Snorunt had a core temperature such that being out of one's suit on a hot summer day could be lethal.

"Ah, interesting…"

* * *

><p><em>Pallet Town, Kanto, Spring of 2944<em>

"We got in! We got in!" John and James both shouted excitedly.

"Good for you boys…" Hannah said distractedly from where she was reading a scientific journal "Got into what?"

"The Kanto Institute of Pokémon! Free ride, basically, and…" Both twins abruptly stopped jumping up and down and acted more like the 18-year-olds they were "…trainer's licenses… what are we supposed to do with these… oh."

Hannah sighed and pushed her office chair back, turning to look at her sons "This was why I warned you, I know it's the most prestigious university in the world, but…" She shrugged nonchalantly, for glaring up at the twins from the paper were the words "SIX MONTHS MINIMUM TRAINER'S EXPERIENCE REQUIRED, WITH AT LEAST 30 TRAINER-TO-TRAINER BATTLES LOGGED IN POKÉDEX OVER THIS TIME, BEFORE YOU MAY BE ADMITTED. STUDENTS WITHOUT CURRENT EXPERIENCE SHOULD BEGIN WITH SUMMER VACATION AND BE ADMITTED IN THE WINTER OR SPRING SEMESTER".

That meant the twins' formal post-secondary education would begin in January or March of next year. They traded a look and immediately agreed without speaking that they would enter in January as well as depart on their Journeys as soon as school was out. Now only one problem remained "I think we need to figure out what starters we should get…" John vocalized it first.

His twin nodded "Yeah, what does Oak have in stock at this time of year Mom?"

Hannah shook her head "He's clean out of starters, we don't start stocking them until June, boys."

"Well I guess we'll have to wait…"

"Snorunt! Runt!" Tali called, pulling on James' pant leg in agitation.

"Huh?" James suddenly groaned and facepalmed "Oh Arceus what was I saying? I have a perfectly good Pokémon friend right here and I'm talking about getting a starter, what an idiot I am… will you be my starter Tali?"

"Sno-RUNT!" Tali replied cheerfully, nodding, bobbing her whole conical environment suit-thingy as she pulled out a letter form one of her many, many pockets. When asked by Liara, she'd replied "These suits have more pockets than you'd think" using Pokéspeak.

"Wow, you got accepted into the Pokémon division of KIP? Nice, Tali, I'm proud of you." James hugged her before getting back up "Well, John, you should go check at Liara's house… John?"

Hanna smirked "He's already gone, son."

* * *

><p><em>Pallet Town, Kanto, Spring of 2944<em>

"I GOT IN I GOT IN I GOT IN!" Liara screeched, waking the whole family up. Two years ago the citizenship laws were passed in Kanto for several Pokémon end-evolutions that were sentient. A few examples included Hitmonchan, Infernape, Lopunny, Gallades and Gardevoir. That meant the Kanto Institute of Pokémon had begun accepting Pokémon students. It was a good thing that Kanto was liberal enough that they accepted the slight increase in cases of Poképhilia (read: trainers and their Pokémon coming out of the closet) as a price of progress.

Mir wandered into his parents' room while his older sister continued bouncing around downstairs, rubbing his eyes under his normal Ralts hairline and pouting "Mommy, can you get Liara to be quiet? I want to sleep some more."

Benicia sighed and ruffled her son's hair "Go back to your room, baby, I'll tell Liara now…" She raised her psychic voice, careful so that little spilled to her son and none to her husband (along with citizenship and educational rights came a few formalities that they'd decided to do) "LIARA! CAN YOU BE QUIET? YOUR BROTHER WANTS TO SLEEP MORE! If there's something you want to tell us, come to our room."

"You little sleepyhead…" Liara called from downstairs "Fine mom… what is THIS?"

The master bedroom nearly exploded, such was the speed with which Benicia and Ares erupted from the bed and teleported downstairs, leaving Mir in the safety of the second floor. Both immediately adopted a fighting stance and looked around for threats. "What is it baby?" Ares asked, his blades at full extension.

Liara looked up at her parents with big red melancholy eyes brimming with tears and the paper in her hand shaking somewhat "I have to evolve at least once to qualify for admittance… it says it recommends youngsters like me tag along with a trainer so they can support us with the rest of the team if we end up fighting something too big for us to handle… This is so unfair!" She shook her head derisively at her own childish statement and chuckled darkly "Then again life's unfair, who am I kidding?"

Knowing there was no threat, Ares and Benicia both relaxed and Benicia wrapped her daughter up in her arms, Ares retracting his blades before putting his arms about both of them "Sweetie, it's alright, you're level 11 already, level 20 is where Ralts evolve to Kirlia, as long as they've grown enough physically, and you're big for a Ralts already, you'll do fine… just need to train some more."

"I wanted to spend my summer vacation before university travelling for fun. It's not easy to stuff twelve years of formal education equivalents into three years, even though most of it came natural to me." Liara grumbled into her mother's shoulder.

There was a knocking at the door and the family broke apart, Ares going off to the kitchen to make breakfast while Benicia checked the door and Liara went back to reading an Organic Chemistry textbook. The Gardevoir opened the door a moment later "Hey John, come in. I'm guessing you want to talk to Liara?"

John nodded "Yeah, and you and Ares as well."

"Hey John!" Liara waved cheerfully "Did you get your acceptance letter? Mine says I have to be a Kirlia at least to actually study there even though I got accepted." She pouted at that before going back to her book.

John frowned at the news "That's exactly what I'm here to ask you guys about."

"What's up, John?" Ares asked, exiting the kitchen, wiping his hands on his apron.

"My letter says I have to get at least six months trainer experience before I can be admitted to KIP, so I wanted to ask Liara if she wanted to be my starter…"

"_And things go click…"_ Benicia sent to her mate alone _"The dominoes have been rolling for quite a while, and now we come to this…"_

"Well, I have to get experience anyways, and I did want to travel before starting at KIP, so… yes, I'll go with you if Mom and Dad are okay with it." The four-year-old Ralts looked up at her parents questioningly.

"We're alright with that, baby." Benicia replied before Ares could start on lecturing John about no inappropriate behaviour near his daughter. Sure, the guy was on the trusted list, but Ares liked to poke fun at him a little too much… She really should not have told him about that aspect of the future that she could see, even though the rest was all blurred and unclear for some reason.

Liara turned back to John with a huge grin "Alright, so when do we get started John?"

"We'll be on our way as soon as school's out so that we can be admitted in the Winter Semester. James and Tali are doing the same. The requirement for me is at least 30 logged battles." John stated.

Liara clapped her small hands together happily "Alright, I'll be ready when the time comes, John."

* * *

><p>AN: Oh boy, and so the adventure begins…

I know Crawdaunt are not native to Kanto, but a (dumb) trainer released his (quite powerful and smart one) there, ergo…

Anyhow, the question is: how am I going to have them end horribly ever after? You'll just have to wait until Arc 2.

REVIEW!


	2. Beginning the Kanto Tour

A/N: In this fic series, Gyms will be NOT AS EASY. AS IN: The Gym Leaders will face a challenger with the Pokémon set they have in the fighting Dojo things (level 50+ Pokémon across six balls). This is why John will act the way he does about Gym battles.

To answer one-village-idiot, the vast majority of Pokémon are able to lay eggs by age ten or so. In fact, most are able to lay eggs by Age 3 but most sentient Pokémon, notably the Ralts and Snorunt lines, take longer. From what I can estimate, Benicia and Ares are most likely about 25 years of age, human years, and are in the "rather late" group of egg-layers among Gardevoir and Gallades, since they elected to take things slow (most such couples will have had their first Ralts by ages 14 to 16, though they would have gotten together between ages 9-12). These are somewhat preliminary numbers and have yet to be fully hammered out. Regardless, you'll find that I'm going to be using a _much_ older Gardevoir than most other writers. Note that for a Ralts-line Pokémon 9 would be a human's 18 and 15 would correspond roughly to 27, then they come closer to matching up after that, much as humans stop physically aging noticeably after about age 25 "nowadays". In the wider galaxy, the end comes from war, disease or accidents, here it's from accidents, wild Pokémon, or disease.

CREATION MYTHS? Oh you have NO IDEA how this is going to tie in with the other fics, though those events will mostly be about a thousand years later… and/or long, long ago. As for the colony ships, they are a historical thing that you shouldn't worry about… for now. It will become severely relevant as, almost a thousand years later, some more of the intricacies of human history are unveiled. The relationship between Zerg and Pokémon is rather elaborate, just like the rest of my history for the galaxy. It's not easy tying ALL THESE things together in a reasonable fashion, but I believe I can pull it off.

Kids usually don't get Pokémon or licenses before age 16 and can't compete at gyms until 20 here. Also, I'm moving some egg groups around, for example, Lilligant, Froslass, and Ralts-line Pokémon are now in Human-Like Egg Group, and yes that means what you think it means. Note that if I hadn't found Gardevoir much better as a fellow psychic to Asari, and found out Hitmonchan is a male-only species, I'd probably have stuck Liara as a female Hitmonchan (complete with head crest). Note of course that Hitmonchan is among most humanoid Pokémon in this universe I'm slowly forging, only behind Ralts line and Froslass.

* * *

><p>Chapter 2: Beginning the Kanto Tour<p>

_Hannah Shepard's Home, Pallet Town, Kanto, June 28, 2944_

"Wake up John! Wake up!" John Shepard woke up to a young girl's voice and a pair of small, white-clad hands shaking his shoulder insistently. A certain Ralts had come over extra early that morning, having packed her things already, and had jumped onto his bed and was now shaking him awake.

"Hey Liara…" He turned his head and smiled at the happy face of the little Ralts girl kneeling next to him. She had grown a lot over the past three years, from 50 centimetres tall to a full meter, and was a lot heavier than when they'd first met. Regardless, she was still light enough for him to carry around comfortably on his shoulder when she got tired of walking around on her short Ralts legs.

"It's time for us to go get your Pokédex and Pokéballs from Professor Oak!" Liara stated cheerfully, happy that they could finally get started on the Pokémon journey that would allow them to enter post-secondary education. Her parents had been VERY happy about moving to Kanto when that particular law was passed…

"Give me some time to clean up and then we can set off. Wait downstairs for me, alright?" John replied with a similarly broad grin, his best friend's happiness was just infectious…

"Okay!" Liara shouted, and left with a bounce in her step. John smiled, shaking his head, before he headed off to the shower to clean himself up.

* * *

><p><em>Hannah Shepard's Home, Pallet Town, Kanto, June 28, 2944<em>

"Hey Liara, you're really excited aren't you?" Hannah asked, not having had much of a chance to talk the first time because the Ralts had just whizzed up the stairs to find John as soon as she came in and said good morning.

"Yep, I can go have all sorts of adventures now… of course I'll be careful and made myself some special protective equipment." She took out a helmet from her bag and put it on, grinning. It wasn't allowed in league or gym battles, or even trainer to trainer logged battles, to have extra equipment of this sort but against wild Pokémon it was a safeguard of sorts. Level 14 Ralts weren't that tough, even with her condition she was physically quite fragile, and she only knew a few moves… "I think I'll miss Mom and Dad though… it's my first time out on my own, sleepovers at your house don't really count for me."

"Ah, the first time out with no adult supervision, well, be careful out there Liara, and remind John to take good care of you. Don't hesitate to stand on his shoulder if your legs feel tired either."

"I'll remember, Hannah."

"Good, now I trust you have spare Antidotes, Potions and such?"

"Yep, though I'm wondering if I should get myself a Pokéball or not, after all, I can't get caught by another trainer if I'm already 'caught', right? I don't want to get stuck with someone else that I'd have to actually break away from before I can go to post-secondary." Liara sat there twiddling her fingers and kicking her feet like the child she was as she waited for her best friend and trainer to hurry up and finish his morning routine.

"Well I gave John something special, just for you, a Luxury Ball, and I already lectured him last night to not put Pokémon in balls unless they want to go in for a break or are badly injured. The medical stasis program that kicks in for badly injured Pokémon is what works in conjunction with the medi-gel and tissue regeneration accelerators to allow Pokécenters to work in healing Pokémon. Of course, all the Nurse Joys and Chanseys do any other needed procedures such as surgeries, but those are rare with the medical technology available to us. I also gave him some stuff he could use to protect you with in case he had to rush you to a Pokécenter and was being pursued by wild Pokémon."

"Like what?" Liara asked, if it was anything like what her parents had packed for her…

"Just some everyday tools like a Swiss Army Knife and that Taser you guys built this spring. That's enough to fight off any Pokémon you're likely to fight before you get stronger, John's not stupid, he won't let you enter a fight you can't win. Most Pokémon are fine with letting people run away anyways, since chasing them isn't worth the effort a lot of the time. The Pidgeys and Rattatas near Route 1 should be good practice for you, and the other less common Pokémon will also be fairly low levels. If you get hurt, come back and go to Oak's lab, he might not advertise it but he has Pokémon healing machines there too. Also stocked lots of Potions for you guys, not that you'll need it much with the body armour you guys have sitting in the garage…"

Liara grinned and nodded vigorously "Yep." Then she stopped, Ralts had heads that were as large as they were going to get by about level twelve (due to being Psychic-type), so moving it around too hard was annoying for the neck until evolution to Kirlia. It was nice that KIP made no distinction between male and female Kirlia, since most males elected NOT to evolve to Gardevoir and would rather search for a Dawn Stone as late as level forty or so, otherwise she probably would have had to hit Gardevoir stage to enter the university. Tali was SO lucky that lots of female Snorunts wanted to evolve to Froslasses… therefore Snorunts were accepted as was.

* * *

><p><em>Professor Oak's Lab, Pallet Town, Kanto, June 28, 2944<em>

"So, Professor, Mom says we have to talk to you before we move out." John stated as he and James walked into the lab, James had been awoken by Tali standing on his pillow and blowing Powder Snow over his face, and his nose still looked a bit red from where he'd sprung up and banged it right on the edge of Tali's yellowish suit. She was rubbing the top of her suit checking for scratches, as she had been standing beside his head when he catapulted upright and bumped her rather hard, making her lose her balance and fall backward onto the floor.

"Yep, I need to give you guys your Pokédexes and five Pokéballs each." Oak stated with a knowing grin "You also need to have rivals… unfortunately there are only two of you here today, so you'll have to be each other's rivals."

"WHAT?" John and James both shouted before beginning to protest.

In the meantime, Liara and Tali were conversing in Pokéspeak so as to not be overheard by the humans "You knew about this, didn't you?" Liara asked Tali with an almost accusing grin on her face.

Tali's glowing bluish-silver eyes crinkled in a grin "I had my suspicions, still, it'll be good to spar with you and actually have a point to it."

"Yeah, I've always been over-matched, more or less, one way or another, until I learnt Teleport."

"Agreed, but since I learned Bite, which is Dark type, I have one up on you."

"You can laugh it off as much as you want, Tali, it's not my fault that my line doesn't get really strong until later."

"Come off it Liara, you've tossed me around enough with Confusion for a few bruises to be nothing for you." Tali retorted, grinning, Snorunt weren't so different from human kids, but their suits possessed a somewhat (read: absurdly) exaggerated mouth… ergo the level 12 Ralts found herself staring at a huge spread of glittering teeth from the Level 15 (nearly 16) Snorunt. "Besides, we are overall perfect genetically for our respective species, though I can't remember having parents… for some reason. Combined with your condition, you're DANGEROUS. Oak said your condition gives you a leg-up…" Tali narrowed her eyes at the Ralts before opening the giant mouth incorporated in her suit as if about to bite the Ralts before she chuckled. "I look forward to beating you again though, I mean, we all know that by level 100, I'll be screwed if I wanted to battle you, so why not have a few battles now when we are reasonably well-matched?"

"I guess that makes some sense, won't be fun being beaten every time, now will it?" Liara replied, knowing through her nature as the Feeling Pokémon that Tali was only teasing, well, not quite, she was also attempting intimidation for preparation for the upcoming, inevitable, traditional rival battle upon starting Pokémon journeys, since almost all trainers were paired with a rival to help gauge their progress. Annoyingly, the battle count meant DIFFERENT TRAINERS each time… at least, you could not count two battles against one opponent unless they are league tournament battles or at least one year apart. That was why they couldn't just duel thirty times and be done with it.

The fact that the two of them both represented the best of their species made the expectations from Oak particularly high. At least, both Pokémon thought so and agreed on giving them all a good show for starter battles. It wasn't for nothing at both their Individual Value ratings matched up at exactly 186 total points for both Pokémon. In other words, they were the best they could possibly be. The Effort Values for both were also maxed out with the training regimen both took at Oak's lab to boost those stats. Unlike other Pokémon, which could have a max total of 510 rating points, both Tali and Liara tore those rules to scrap, possessing 252 EV points in EVERYTHING. They were the best of their kinds, the fact that they regularly sparred with a full set of EV-enhancing items helped, a lot.

When Oak had finally persuaded the twins to serve as one another's rivals, he decided to let them have the traditional rival battle. After all, Pokédexes recorded all untoward behaviours such as attempting to harm an opponent directly or their fainted Pokémon. Pokédexes also were required for Pokéballs to operate properly, otherwise all you could do was recall wounded Pokémon. The Pokédex was engineered to be effectively indestructible and user-unique, and this helped greatly in the regulation of Pokémon battles and captures. The two Pokémon prepared for battle by putting on all the equipment they could to maintain their high stats. Though there was no evidence that EV bleed could occur, both were still worried over it and it was quite comical to see both lumbering onto the field.

"You sure that's a good idea girls?" John and James asked worriedly. Neither Tali nor Liara responded as they adjusted their Macho Braces, Power Weights, Power Bracers, Power Belts, Power Lenses, Power Bands and Power Anklets before moving into station at a truly glacial pace instead of their usual nimble, speedy movements. John and James had never agreed with the idea, but the two Pokémon were too stubborn for the boys to handle.

"You get first move, Liara." Tali stated in clipped, accented English, she had decided to learn after all, because she'd realized it would likely take quite a while for James to find the Dawn Stone she wanted to use to evolve to Froslass, and besides, she wanted to learn Crunch before she evolved, and that meant Level 31.

"You sure? Well, let's see what those two decide to have us do." Both Pokémon plopped themselves down on the floor of the Battle Room of the lab, which they had used many times before to spar in, and waited for instructions.

* * *

><p>Sure, both were on the "Certainly Sentient" Pokémon list, but in the rare cases that such a Pokémon let itself be caught, it would generally decide to be lazy and let the trainer do the work of giving orders. Of course, those that had been with a trainer from a very young age generally trusted them enough anyways to let them give the orders. Said list included:<p>

Abra-Kadabra-Alakazam, Machop-Machoke-Machamp, Ghastly-Haunter-Gengar, Hypno, Mr. Mime, Scyther-Scizor, Smoochum-Jynx, Dragonite, Mewtwo, Mew, Misdreavus-Mismagius, Wobbuffet, Hitmonlee/Hitmonchan/Hitmontop, Sceptile, Combusken-Blaziken, Ralts-Kirlia-Gardevoir/Gallade, Roselia-Roserade, Snorunt-Glalie/Froslass, Beldum-Metang-Metagross, Monferno-Infernape, Buneary-Lopunny, Riolu-Lucario, Croagunk-Toxicroak, Servine-Serperior, Gurdurr-Conkeldurr, Throh-Sawk, Leavanny, Petilil-Lilligant, Zoroark, Gothita-Line. Any Legendary is likely sentient, however as they are Legendary and have never been caught, no accurate gauge of their intelligence has been determined. Though according to Lugia's sense of humour, on the few occasions it has been sighted and allowed itself to be "studied", and assuming similar intellect applies to all Legendaries, they are sentient and enjoy joking around with us entirely too much. Any Pokémon displaying sufficient intellect may also be classed as sentient if desired. Professor Mordin Oak (the current Professor Oak) was the leading authority on this, to quote him "Any member capable of calculus, of any species, should be considered sentient. Experiments on Pokémon, regardless of species, are immoral and should be smashed down immediately, no matter what."

When asked about the Pokémon Continent as many refer to it, he replied with "That's just proof of how intelligent Pokémon are, hell, they live in CITIES! Have POLICE, and even go on their own adventures… we're lucky the Pokémon on the five main regions haven't decided to organize themselves in nations and go to war with us. After all, the Pokémon Continent's government has been in place since before mankind arrived!" (A/N: Decided to put in the side-games for another, far earlier, cycle.) Professor Mordin Oak is currently investigating what genetic mechanisms allow Pokémon to with some success reproduce in Egg Groups as opposed to entirely distinct species.

* * *

><p>John and James blinked before realizing the two weren't going to do it themselves. They exchanged a shrug before looking at their Pokémon, who were looking up at them expectantly with rather bored expressions. "Okay, let's do a normal trainer battle instead of letting them do everything."<p>

"About time we got going…" Liara muttered as she got to her feet, Tali doing the same on James' side of the field.

"Alright…" John looked down at Liara's move set. Growl, Confusion, Double Team and Teleport stared back at him. Then he mentally ran over a Snorunt's learn set. Tali would have Powder Snow, Leer, Double Team, Bite and Icy Wind. John was expecting a lot of Bite attacks since that was Dark type and carried a 2x advantage against Liara's Psychic type. Then he measured the two health bars… he had the disadvantage in everything except Speed and Special Attack stats. "Liara, Confusion, then quick Double Team!"

James had a very bad feeling that Tali would close the distance too slowly for a Bite to work "Use Powder Snow to obscure her line of sight then Icy Wind. Prepare for a Bite while Liara's stuck!" James shouted, knowing Snorunt and its evolutions had eyes specialized to see through blizzards but Ralts-line Pokémon did not.

Though Tali still got thrown into the ceiling with a loud thud, she kept firing with her Icy Wind. Thankfully, Liara had evaded using her Double Team and so wasn't hurt too much. Her Special Defence being high meant Tali's Powder Snow didn't do too much damage while her Confusion did a good amount in a single strike. The Icy Wind however began to bleed her stamina even with the Double Team taking the brunt of the attack as the temperature of the room plummeted. If this was against a wild Pokémon, she would have been wearing something thicker, but official Trainer vs. Trainer battles did not allow that. That was why she had to rely on her self-regulated self-cleaning overalls and shoes that only showed her pale hands and face. The environment monitoring systems helped, but it wasn't enough to completely keep out the cold. She was aware that in the swirling snow of the room was Tali, trudging toward her despite the seven items weighing her down, ready to chomp down on her and deal some real damage with her jaws.

"Liara, Teleport" _to where Tali started the fight!_ John's voice, physical, then mental, called through the snowstorm, it brought a sort of focus to the disoriented Ralts. The room had been painted white, and the snow was NOT helping her sense of direction. But she could still remember what Tali's spot looked like, and a moment of concentration allowed her to teleport there.

"Tali, hit her NOW!" James shouted.

Liara heard the grin in James' voice before she felt the jaws of the Snorunt that had just taken two steps back from her start spot seize her around the back of her head and SQUEEZE as if trying to crush her skull and eat her brain. She screeched in pain before she was thrown into the settling snow, getting up as soon as her head cleared and hitting Tali, who was moving extremely slowly thanks to her equipment, with a Confusion that tossed the Ice type into the air before turning her over and slamming her down on the ground.

"Okay now I'm getting annoyed." Tali growled as she got back up, having to tip her body over onto her feet first. She blasted Liara with an Icy Wind and the Ralts yelped in pain as she felt the freezing air smash against her bio-electric fields at high speed.

Liara lashed back with another Confusion that sent Tali flying again, getting back up a little bit unsteadily as Liara pulled herself back up out of the snow again, her hands trembling from the cold and teeth chattering a little.

"Are you alright Liara?" John asked her. James was asking Tali the same thing.

"WE'RE FINE! CONTINUE THE BATTLE DAMN IT!" Both Pokémon roared back at their trainers before circling each other slowly, waiting for the other to make the first move.

"Liara, volley Confusions and do whatever you deem necessary to win." John stated, biting his lip, at the same time as James ordered "Volley Icy Wind and do what you think will help you win."

Liara hit Tali with a Confusion that directed the first Icy Wind in a sort of spiral pattern as Tali flew end over end in the air. Then the Ralts summoned images of herself using Double Team and tried hitting the Snorunt in mid-flight, after she bounced painfully off the wall, with another Confusion. Tali dodged by changing the direction of her gas gust and spinning herself out of the way before she hit the ground on her own two feet and spun a little to expend the angular momentum she had from navigating herself in the air. Tali created images of herself via Double Team, one of which had a Confusion pulse from Liara pass through it harmlessly.

Tali fixed Liara with a Leer before inhaling deeply and pumping out a stream of super-cooled air only to find that she had targeted the wrong Liara image. A sudden shimmering sound behind her alerted Tali to, her mouth open to inhale again, turn around in time to get hit by a Confusion pulse that lifted her off the ground and threw her again. Before it could though she nabbed Liara, who yelped in surprise, and used Bite to hit the physically smaller Ralts hard, the two were blasted apart by another Confusion pulse from Liara and got up shakily. Liara's eyes were beginning to glow a bit and Tali's were burning fiercely, both beginning to get into the feeling of battling. They lumbered toward one another, Liara using Growl to maximum effect while Tali milked Leer for all it was worth. They seemed to be trying to Tackle one another, but neither connected. Tali threw Liara away with a high-pressured bust of Icy Wind at close range at the same time that Liara hurled her back with Confusion. They were staggering when they got up again, yelling and snarling in their native Pokéspeak as they lunged at one another. Liara's next Confusion pulse spluttered several times before it was good enough to launch, but by then it was too late, Tali had put on a burst of speed and chomped down on Liara's arm with another Bite before being slammed repeatedly against the floor by the Confusion. Clouds of snow went up before the two combatants were visible again, seemingly locked together, a 1.3-meter-tall cone with a smaller shape leaning against it.

"Snorunt… runt." Tali mumbled faintly as she got off her butt, swayed, and fell over onto her hands and cone edge, dragging herself off the battlefield, leaving a white-covered body with two distinctive red gems peeking through the mop of green hair lying on her side in the center of the Battle Room. "I'm alright, go help Liara…" She mumbled in English as the twins raced down from the Trainers' Balconies to grab their wounded Pokémon.

Oak was already there with his assistants by the time the boys got down the stairs, carting both off to the Pokémon-healing machines and muttering about how the boys were so stubborn never to put their Pokémon in balls and how balls didn't _capture_ Fainted Pokémon. He turned to look at the boys with a frown after putting Liara and Tali in the machines' operating fields. "It would be a LOT faster if they'd been in their Pokéballs, you're lucky you're here, most Pokécenters would take a longer time healing Pokémon not in balls, but they should be ready to go again in five minutes. I recommend you put them in balls just so the balls will recognize them and let them back in if they faint. Also recommend travelling together at least to Pewter City, Viridian Forest could be dangerous. Most of the time nothing too nasty is there but you never know…" Oak shrugged at that.

They talked until the machines pinged ready and Oak pulled the gurneys with the Ralts and Snorunt out, the two getting up and hopping down, shaking hands and patting each other on the back heartily. "How are you feeling?" John and James both asked at once.

"Great, let's start our adventure now!" Liara cheered excitedly, jumping up and down in front of John.

Tali shrugged "Just fine, the machine even replenished my water storages, so that I can use Powder Snow more times before I have to stop using it."

James frowned at that "A question, Tali, how do you store so much water?"

Tali frowned "I don't know, I just will it to appear and it does, but it seems that there's a limit to how much water I can store… and energy too. Best not to think on it too much, I'm sure there are plenty of people out there looking into it already."

"So as I was saying I recommend you at least have balls assigned to them, then you can get them to a Pokécenter if they get severely injured and faint." Oak said. "The onboard medical stasis program will keep them alive long enough."

Tali stroked her chin thoughtfully, using Leer on Oak, while Liara simply shrugged "That sounds reasonable, so, you have a ball for me?" She asked John.

James answered while John was still biting his lip and struggling with the idea of putting his best friend in a Pokéball of any variety "Yeah, we've got Luxury Balls for you guys, but I'd personally prefer if you stayed outside with me."

Tali smiled at James, finally breaking her Leer on Oak "Great, now where is it… here." She fished it off his belt before tapping herself on the head, activating the ball and getting sucked inside. It didn't even rock before it clicked and the ball recognized her as the user. Then she emerged in another flash of light from the quantum storage device and put it back on James' belt in the first position. Liara had yanked John, who was nearly twice her height, down and done the same thing with his Luxury Ball.

"See, that wasn't so bad, now we'll have a way of staying alive if we get badly wounded." The Ralts stated, looking up at her friend, who merely sighed and shook his head before picking her up and putting her on his shoulder.

* * *

><p><em>Route 1, Kanto, June 28, 2944<em>

"I think I should handle the Pidgeys and Furrets and you can handle Rattatas and Sentrets we come across." Liara said to Tali as they walked down Route 1 with the twins. They'd removed all their extra EV-enhancing gear, compacted the things, and stowed them in their bags as well as pulling out the protective armour they would wear in the wild. It was made of a ceramic composite material sandwiched between layers of metal melted onto the ceramic plates.

"Why?" Tali asked.

"That adds up to a total encounter rate, according to the Pokédexes, that's equal for both of us, and your advantage against flying-types just makes you fighting Pidgeys rather pointless."

"Well, you make sense there… sure, we'll do that." Tali looked up at the twins "You boys alright with it?"

"Yep…" Both nodded before John whispered to James "Sometimes I wonder if we're training them or they're training us."

"This suit does not make me deaf." Tali reminded them "In fact I can use the entire surface to sense air vibrations if I want."

"My hairline doesn't make me deaf either." Liara put in, sharing a grin with Tali, neither of them looking back at their somewhat embarrassed friends. Tali stopped several steps before there was a thud and Liara pulled her face off the side of a steep ledge about three meters high. "Don't say it…" She growled, rubbing her forehead "They call this a road?"

"Well, I think it's designed to give trainers leaving Pallet Town training opportunities, though it's worthless for high-level Pokémon…" John stated, looking at his map. "We need to head west and go through some tall grass to find the way up this ledge, then every ledge after that can only be rounded by going uphill through tall grass, this route is high at the north end and low at the south end, so that's not absurd… the ledges seem to have been built with making heading south an express route though, since you can simply jump down the ledges on your way south."

"Well it probably WAS built that way, now come on, let's go fight some Pidgeys and Rattatas. It'll be good practice, for us and for them." James led the way as they headed west to the tall grass that would let them up the first ledge.

Surprisingly, they encountered nothing there, but that was probably because they took the shortest route, and because a Sentret had popped up on its tail, seen them, and let out a loud shriek before the grass rustled and al sorts of Pokémon rustled off including a few Pidgeys that flew away. "Well, on to the next patch of tall grass…"

The first Pidgey they met was battered into submission with a quick series of Confusions from Liara, it seemed to only know Tackle and was soon knocked out since Liara kept on throwing it against trees whenever it tried to dive at her or charge her. The second one seemed a bit older and more experienced, throwing up a sand cloud after Liara hit it once. Then it flapped its wings rapidly, trying to blow Liara away with the heavy gust of wind. Fortunately for the Ralts, she had a backpack and was thus unaffected due to the increase in mass and her throwing herself prone upon the ground. Another cloud of dust came her way and she sensed the Pidgey attacking with a Tackle. She fired a Confusion pulse in the general direction of the Pidgey and knew she missed when she did not sense its dismay. She rolled to one side, the Pidgey narrowly missing her, and smiled. Protective goggles really helped with this sort of sand cloud… Then she caught the highly evolved pigeon with a Confusion pulse to the back, causing it to finally topple, confused and fainting slowly, as she felt herself gaining more experience from the battle.

Tali's first few battles were similarly successful as she snowed her opponents in or blasted them with enough cold air to knock them out. Several were also bitten as the Snorunt helped the group forge their way north, until… "Mom said there was a Black Apricorn tree on the west side of the Route, near the north, just down from the first ledge leading south. She said she had dropped an Apricorn there, and when she finally realized it days later, she came back and found a seedling. Maybe there are some Apricorns we can grab. Mom says some people still make various Pokéballs out of them like they did in ancient times when Pokémon containment technology was still fairly new." John said, leading the crew to the ledge in question and pointing out the lone tree.

"Well then, that's unusual…" Tali muttered.

"Two ripe Apricorns on the same tree, yeah, that is unusual, usually only one ripens on a given day and no more ripen until that one is picked… and only one can be picked per day." Liara agreed. "Well then, I'll nab them for us so we don't have to make our way through that patch of tall grass over there again. One for each of the twins, eh?"

Tali shrugged "Go ahead, I sure don't feel like giving another flock of Pidgeys frostbite." Vegetation on the planet was much more resistant to changing conditions and efficient at using sunlight than Earth vegetation, not unusual considering the wildlife. The tall grass would not be hurt by the thick layer of snow Tali had piled onto it. Their armour had accumulated a few dents and scratches too, but nothing that couldn't be fixed given a high-level fire type or a blowtorch.

Two simple Confusion pulses later, the Apricorns were safely stashed in the Apricorn Pockets of the crew's bags and the tree began maturing another Apricorn slowly. The crew moved off toward the gate to Viridian city after that, thankful that there was no more tall grass to get in their way. The city wasn't very interesting, since they didn't want to risk any battles against the Trainers around the area, despite Tali having (barely) hit Level 17 and Liara Level 13 from slugging their way through Route 1. It was decided that a round tour of Kanto would serve well as a way to level the girls up before they could go off to KIP, which was on the Indigo Plateau near the League's complex.

* * *

><p>AN: I am aware I am overdoing the girls, however, we need to give the crew a few advantages against the threats they will face. Let's just say the Shepard boys in all incarnations have "save the world/galaxy/universe" syndrome. Though like good children everywhere they will finish their education first. It will be after the boys and girls are done schooling that they go to save the world repeatedly. Oh, and you can't have a dreamboat Pokémon without an absurd gene set, so yeah.

Current Stats below are with the Generation IV formula, since I can't find the Gen V formula on Bulbapedia (I do not own a single legit copy of any Pokémon game, the closest things I have are ROMs of Emerald and Pearl, and even then I don't have the patience to play through them). I am assuming the Gen V way of recalculating often (though not after every battle like the game) depending on changes applies, so I'm calculating with maxed out IVs and EVs for both girls.

Tali: Level 17 Snorunt, Nature Unknown (does not influence), HP 59.98 (294x17/100+10), Attack, Defence, Speed, Special Attack, Special Defence are all 37.98(194x17/100+5).

NOTE: Tali's stats shown with part of formula included: Increase section includes the level multiplier before adding 10 or 5. Liara's will show her **condition modifier but not her level modifier**.

Liara: Level 13 Ralts, Nature Unknown (does not influence), HP 58.75 (32.5x1.5+10), Attack 33.08 (18.72x1.5+5), Defence 33.08 (18.72x1.5+5), Speed 38.93 (22.62x1.5+5), Special Attack 40.88 (23.92x1.5+5), Special Defence 36.98 (21.32x1.5+5).

These stats (that you can find by scanning a Pokémon with your Pokédex, assuming it has the add-ons Hannah Shepard installed in her boys' gear) are just giving you guys a heads up that if there's a battle, both will survive longer than expected for their levels and species, so don't be too shocked. And HP is not just mass anymore, sheer will matters too (feed more energy to bio-electric aka HP/Structural fields), especially for Psychic, Dark and Ghost types.

At Level 100 Froslass, Tali will have HP 344 (334+10), Attack 259 (254+5), Defence 239 (234+5), Speed 319 (314+5), Special Attack 259 (254+5), Special Defence 239 (234+5).

At Level 100 Gardevoir (with her condition), Liara will have HP 505 (330x1.5+10), Attack 341 (224x1.5+5), Defence 341 (224x1.5+5), Speed 386 (254x1.5+5), Special Attack 521 (344x1.5+5), Special Defence 491 (324x1.5+5).

Note that due to her condition Liara will likely only be at level 70 or so when Tali is at 100, and that Tali still has type advantage even though she will be, if they are at the same level, hopelessly outmatched by a freaking tank of a Pokémon. Using the stats on Bulbapedia, and given full IVs, EVs, and the nature bonus on everything (fitting of a God Pokémon), Arceus from the games at level 100 would be out-tanked (HP), out-run (Speed) and out-Special-ed (Special ATK/DEF) though the 372 normal ATK/DEF numbers will out-match Liara at full power (which will take an huge amount of EXP to reach)… for now. I'll amp up all the legendaries vastly though, heh.

REVIEW!


	3. Viridian and Pewter

A/N: They are most certain to catch other Pokémon… how does a Larvitar that likes to grunt responses and thus acquires such a name (Grunt) sound to you? Did anyone notice "Mordin Oak"? I couldn't think of a Pokémon to suit him, so… heh. There are a few choices for Kelly: Buneary-Lopunny, Togepi-Togetic-Togekiss, an Eeveelution, or Victini? So far my team plan covers steel, rock, bug, dragon and flying adequately (more than adequate psychics and fighting) but I don't have fire, water, grass, or electric, unless you count learn-sets using TMs (here Hidden Machines are only different in that the instant-teach form can be used repeatedly). Also, question: What starts in a form that you would never think would learn to fly but does in the end? As in, which options can you suggest for Joker? I currently only know of whatever Flygon starts as and Bagon (end evolution is Salamence). STATE IN REVIEW!

I know I gave the boys high level starters, but once you see how tough the Gyms are gonna be, you'll begin to understand. Besides, you can't catch Ralts in the wild until level 17-19 in Platinum, about right power level from Liara.

* * *

><p>Chapter 3: Viridian and Pewter<p>

_Viridian City, Kanto, June 28, 2944_

"So this is the first time you'll be at a Pokécenter?" John asked Liara as they browsed the Pokémart in Viridian City. They had decided to head there first instead of the Pokécenter as neither Tali nor Liara had accumulated much damage or status ailments.

The Ralts nodded while examining the ingredients list on a bottle of Antidote, which she expected to need, since Psychics were weak to Bug-types and those often had Poison-type attacks. "Yep, Pallet Town didn't have one, remember? Though I did see the inside of Oak's lab a lot…"

John nodded before he turned his computer off and looked at what Liara was browsing through "So, you're anticipating getting hit by Bug types, Ghost Types and Dark types?"

Liara put the little bottles of Paralysis Heal and Awakening sprays she was checking out down "Yeah, I brought two of each, along with one of each of the other status cures, plus three normal Potions, an Escape Rope and a Revive."

John blinked "You packed a lot, didn't you? Thirteen little bottles and two other things in addition to your body armour and food seems a lot for you to handle."

Liara growled, and shook her head, her helmet staying on her head as she did so. "No, training with all those EV-enhancing items really helped my strength. I'm guessing you packed about as much stuff for me?"

"Yeah, so we're good for everything, no need to shop here then, right?" John started moving off after the Ralts, who had decided enough shopping was enough.

"True, let's go wander around town… OOF!" Liara fell on her butt as she walked into a yellow, conical object.

Tali turned around with a questioning "Runt?" and then laughed. "We were about to leave too, nothing for us here, not like we're planning on capturing any more Pokémon anyways, so no need to buy any balls."

John helped Liara get up even though the tough girl didn't need it "Agreed, let's just wander around town for a bit."

Tali dragged James off to the supermarket as soon as they were outside the Pokémart while John and Liara shook their heads, smiling, and headed in a different direction, wandering near the forest that bordered the city for a stroll when Liara tripped over something and fell flat on her face. "That rock's really round… John?" She jumped back to her feet before looking back at her trainer, who was raising his eyebrow at whatever she'd just tripped over "Is it a Pokémon egg or something?"

"What the hell is a gold nugget doing here?" John asked, looking up at his friend, utterly baffled.

"What? Let me see that…" Liara picked the thing up before examining it, shaking it around then hitting it with a Confusion pulse. It warped, meaning it was soft… soft enough to be gold. "Huh, think we should sell this thing off to the Pokémart?"

Liara shrugged "Why not? Not like we'll have a use for it anyways, and some extra funds are always good for spending money when we're at KIP… not that your mother doesn't send us enough to go by."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense, let's go ask Mom via the Pokécenter's phone first though."

* * *

><p><em>Pond at Viridian City, Kanto, June 28, 2944<em>

"You know, that guy looks like he might be dead, or waiting for Pokémon to step on him." Tali observed, her eyes narrowed at a guy visible across the lake. "Let's try this…" She sprayed some Powder Snow over the ground before gathering it in her hands and passing it to James to throw.

"That ought to do it." James stated as he watched the snowball's trajectory

The snowball hit the sleeping guy in the face and he woke up coughing and spluttering just before a Poliwhirl, upset by the snow floating around on the surface of the pond, hit Tali with a Water Gun to her faceplate, jumping out onto the shore to challenge the two. "AAHHH!" Tali shouted as the sudden damage took its toll. She had already been hurt and was only slowly regenerating from the dozens of engagements against wild Pokémon on Route 1. "GRR!" She unleashed an Icy Wind that froze the water on the Poliwhirl's skin before trying to headbutt it. Unfortunately since she was not at level 19 when the move would be fully developed and added to her move set, she somewhat failed in a very surprising way considering her type. Ice types did NOT usually end up slipping on ice they themselves made, but Tali did, though she still bowled the Poliwhirl into the lake, she herself also fell in. "Uh oh… James, help!" She yelled, thankfully, as an ice-type, swimming came naturally, or at least, staying afloat did. "WAAHH!" She screamed as another Water Gun hit her from below, capsizing her conical body so that her face was underwater and her covered legs were sticking out of the bottom of her suit into the air. She tried to tilt herself back upright but found that she couldn't, since her suit was just so buoyant, and she kicked her legs helplessly in a sudden panic as she tried another Icy Wind.

It was true that Pokémon did not need to breathe per se and that many if not most, especially end-evolutions, could survive in vacuum (and use thrust vectoring to move about, thanks to their innate ability to just generate energy and matter to an extent), however, it did help their recovery and energy levels to breathe. Tali watched in horror as her Icy Wind did nothing but produce a froth of ice-covered bubbles and the angry Poliwhirl closed distance… only to be smashed down by a hammer-blow of something big and human-shaped entering the warm water. It floated upward slowly, obviously knocked out, as the human—the clothes identified it as her trainer—swam over to her and tilted her back upright again before turning his back "Hold on, Tali." He ordered before beginning a breaststroke, Tali clinging to the back of his shirt as he swam to the shore. He pulled them both up onto the edge of the lake, transferring her to a one-armed hold, nearly effortlessly "You okay, Tali?" He asked as he put her down.

"I'll live…" She moaned weakly, limping a little from where the Water Gun had hit her foot.

James picked her up again "Don't worry, we'll get you to the Pokécenter right away."

"Hey, Hey!" A voice shouted from behind them. "Thanks for waking me up, I would have been late for work otherwise… I have a TM that you might want, I don't have any Pokémon, so I was thinking you as a trainer could use this TM I found better than I could." The random man shoved the two the TM disk in question before running off "See ya! Got to get to work!"

"That… was weird." James stated.

Tali rolled her eyes at that "Hallelujah."

"Let's get you to the Pokécenter." James began to run for the red-topped building. "I think that's enough wandering around for today, it's getting dark out anyways. Let's get a room with John and Liara for the night, alright Tali?"

She nodded her suit a bit "Yeah that sounds good to me."

* * *

><p><em>Pokécenter at Viridian City, Kanto, June 28, 2944<em>

"Well how was your first day?" John asked James after Tali had been healed and they'd gotten one of the rooms at the Pokémon center, which also served as a hotel for trainers. The suite wasn't large but it was reasonably well-equipped, two double beds, a TV, some wall outlets including internet, and a bathroom with a toilet, sink and shower stall, it would do fine.

"I did alright, got a TM that I haven't checked from some random guy, got Tali up two levels…"

"You realize that levelling them up over level 20 will be much harder, right?" John inquired.

"Yeah, I know, still, we've stuck together through the years and we'll do the same now." James shrugged. "This TM is for a Psychic type move, apparently, so I'm guessing Liara will get better use out of it than Tali, at least until she evolves, right Tali?"

The yellow pylon-like suit bobbed next to the bed as she continued her game of poker with Liara, both of them able to muster total poker faces thanks to hair and visor respectively, though Tali's body language habits hampered her a bit, Liara's nose and mouth showing hampered her equally. "Yep, I'm sure I want to go to Froslass now, but I want to get to level 31 and learn Crunch before I do."

"Dark-type move, 80 base power rating… you're just gearing up to hit me hard, eh?" Liara smirked.

"You do realize that I could just do Shadow Ball for a Ghost-type move that does the same sort of damage? Except you can dodge that… and in battle that's not good, right?" Tali smirked back rather coldly.

"Anyways, let's get back to the Technique Manual at hand…" John muttered to himself as he put the disc in his computer and transferred the files "it's Dream Eater!"

Tali's body turned rather quickly at that "What? That's one of the more powerful Psychic-type moves available that don't damage the user… though the opponent needs to be put to sleep first."

Liara's grin spread even more "Lucky me, I can develop Hypnosis by levelling up and can use that before Dream Eater. So let's study it, John, James can have it when Tali evolves. Right Tali?"

The Snorunt shrugged, her conical suit bobbing "You go do that, I'll go tinker with some of the designs I have…" She grabbed her laptop from one of her suit pockets (the suit was entirely waterproof so it didn't take damage) and put it on the desk before hopping up on a chair, her feet barely reaching over the edge, and beginning to resume work on another program fro another project. "It'll be hard being an ice-type in the Engineering department, mostly because of the blowtorches, glue guns, fire, and steel types being prevalent there…" She murmured to herself before falling silent, focused on her work.

James watched John and Liara watch the tutorial movies for Dream Eater for a moment or two before joining Tali in working on her project… on THEIR project.

"The descriptions don't really do Psychic-type moves much justice… probably going to take a lot of practice to learn without using the TM Infusion capability." Liara commented once it was over. "I'm never going to use that ability, too dangerous for my memory." She reassured the young man (almost-18-year-old) when he frowned down at her worriedly.

A corner of John's mouth curled up in a lopsided grin "Good… you know, we can head out on Route 2 tomorrow and then you can find sleeping Hoot-hoots and Noctowls to surprise with that if you get hurt from the bug types up there. Even if the owl-thing faints from the draining effect, you'll get a HP restoration and the thing won't take any permanent damage."

Liara frowned "Well… I guess that could work. Alright, let me watch the video a few more times them we can go outside and try it. It won't be easy, and it might take a few tries to get right, just telling you John."

He shrugged, it didn't matter, if she wanted to learn it, she would learn it, it was just how Liara T'Soni worked "That's perfectly alright Liara, take all the time you need."

"Normally Ralts don't develop the ability until level 50, and no one bothers staying a Ralts for that long, hell, we'd throw away Ever-stones if someone tried to give us one after level 30 or so. Kirlia don't get it until level 59, and only the dumbest men who haven't found Dawn Stones bother staying Kirlias for that long. Gardevoir only fully mature the ability around level 73, since there is just so much more energy they need to control and learn to manipulate first. Of course, that's natural development, with watching TMs, it's completely different." She smirked "Let's try it out tomorrow, now, you should go use the shower, I need to watch this a few more times and James and Tali are technogabble-ing over there, so…"

John shook his head with a knowing grin "Naturally, I am first to have the 'privilege' of the shower and sink, I get it. See you guys in a moment."

"See you in a moment John!" Liara stated cheerfully before going back to watching the TM movie play. Tali and James were too consumed in working on their project that they did not notice the departure of one of their quartet.

Once John Shepard came back, Liara decided to take her turn, after sniffing at his shampoo-scented hair and deciding the brand of shampoo he bought for the journey was better than what they'd used at home and that she would indeed wash her hair. She "ran" (careful of the potentially slippery floor with her white shoes) into the bathroom, turning the taps on to the warm temperature she liked, and took off her Ralts overalls and shoes, which were self-cleaning if she wanted them to be, shoving them in the clothes cleaner under the sink before stepping in. Washing one's hair was similar to humans for most Pokémon with head hair, for example, the only difference for Ralts-line Pokémon was the gems, and even those did not apply for the end-evolutions. Liara's hair, like all others of the Ralts line, was actually quite soft and had the same silky texture as human hair, if she traded her overalls for other clothes she would basically look human (excluding the gems), but both hair and overalls functioned in bio-electric field projection and thus self-defence. Both self-cleaned, but she found it rather… an irritating process, ergo she preferred to clean her overalls with her mind while she herself was washing up, well, she preferred the mini clothes cleaner under the sink even better…

She thought about the new attack she'd been learning and how useful it would be to bleed a sleeping enemy's bio-electric field energy away and absorb half to your fields. _I hope I don't let myself down tomorrow… let John down tomorrow…_ The four-year-old Ralts (most at her age would be close to evolving to Kirlia, but she was still quite a bit from that) thought. I'm weak against Bug-types and Tali isn't strong either against them… would be nice if we had a fire-type… still, I just have to try my best, worst comes to worst, John and James will just have to stomp them into the ground physically. Bug-types here are tougher than the Earth animals the humans brought with them but a few good swats will still knock a Beedrill out for the count, and Viridian is known for having low-level bug types that mostly evolve by sheer age instead of level. A level three Kakuna or a level seven Beedrill would be a real joke… hopefully.

Liara had no idea why Psychics were weak to bugs, but perhaps it was just that they were speedy, small and not easy to dodge or deflect? That must have been it, she decided as she towelled herself dry before pulling on her now nearly sparkling clean overalls and leaving the bathroom. She had to clamour up onto John's bed because she wouldn't master using her anti-gravity capabilities until Gardevoir stage and even then normal Gardevoir preferred walking just for the sake of feeling the ground vibrating beneath their feet. The only ones that didn't were the speed junkies that liked flying a bit too much to be healthy. It was a natural extension of hovering, and it was one of the reasons why Gardevoir were so incredibly popular even though they were also almost never had among trainers. They were the ultimate transport utilities, as they could teleport anywhere they have been to or have enough panoramic photos of or have accurate enough coordinates to see, could hover/fly over obstacles, and technically could breathe underwater and such. John was reading some more books on Pokémon off the internet while Tali and James were still excitedly debating something about their tech project.

Liara, after doing all her routine clean-up (teeth-brushing was much less efficient… and much simpler than cleaning them with your mind, but whatever…) spent some more time watching the videos and reading online manuals, then felt rather tired from learning Dream Eater, so she said so "John, I'm tired, can we go to sleep now?" She asked, having whisked most of the water form her hair with a thought as she left the bathroom, she was now thoroughly dry, warm and sleepy as she curled up, her head resting against her pillow. Thoughts of evolution to Kirlia and what KIP would be like ran through her head as she started drifting off to sleep. She smirked with her eyes shut, Kirlia imprinted on their best friends, usually their trainer most of all, and the more positive emotions they got, the more beautiful a Kirlia would become, Gardevoir received a similar effect for the first couple years before they settled down in appearance. With the amount of positivism from the twins and Tali, Liara couldn't wait to evolve to Kirlia.

"Sure, James, Tali!" John called to his twin, who froze, then turned slowly from his conversation with his Snorunt. "Can you guys do that tomorrow or something? Liara's sleepy from learning Dream Eater."

"What do you think Tali?" James asked his partner-in-crime.

Tali shrugged before saving her files "WTFN?"

James nodded slowly "…Right, you first or me first?"

"If you don't want a cold bathroom, complete with half-frosted tiles, that will take a while to warm back up and steam up again I suggest you go now." Tali replied simply, here eyes narrowed and mouth pouted in a "duh" expression.

"Alright, going now…"

* * *

><p><em>Route 2, Kanto, June 29, 2944<em>

"That looks annoying." Liara stated bluntly.

"What, that Pidgey? Is it because you don't have the faceplate I do and it might actually peck you in the eye?" Tali asked with a very wide and toothy Snorunt grin.

"No, the bugs!" Liara growled, watching the Pidgey prying String Shot strings off itself with its beak and spitting them out, obviously the result of a failed foraging outing for Caterpie. "I HATE bugs… type vulnerability, remember?"

Tali bobbed her suit happily "Yep, let's see how you deal with them then."

Liara used her Growl attack on Tali before realizing it was supposed to be a cute growl to get your opponent to slack and lower their attack capability. She facepalmed abruptly before sighing "Fine, here's a patch of grass, and it's just south of Viridian that we can train here for today and then move into the forest tomorrow, hopefully get all the way through in one day and not get attacked at night by bugs…"

The first bug they met was a Weedle that John stepped on, which let out a "WHEE!" of protest before throwing the young man off. Pokémon were alarmingly strong compared to the animals mankind had brought, but usually they did not eat domestic animals or humans since their energy storage tissues were so much more efficient than fats and their metabolic energy needs so high that using a move to kill something to eat was generally not worth it. They were also so absurdly durable/powerful that mankind had all but given up on making weapons, instead favouring training stronger Pokémon instead.

"Ah CRAP!" John growled as he got back to his feet "Good thing I wore these armoured boots Tali made, or I'd probably be limping from the poison for the rest of the day…" For some reason, Poison-type attacks were rarely used on annoying humans or domestic animals with full power, simply because a) they didn't need to be to give a good warning, and the stung party would typically warn others about the danger and b) it wasn't worth the energy expenditure, not really.

"Good thing these starting evolution bugs usually don't learn bug-type attacks, only Poison Sting for Weedle and Tackle for Caterpie." Tali commented as Liara slammed the larva of an overly-evolved wasp violently and repeatedly against the ground with a barrage of confusions even while it blindly fired off String Shots with its eyes squeezed shut to avoid damage. It soon went limp as it fainted. "See, that wasn't so bad, now was it?"

A number of Beedrill suddenly buzzed out of the grass where Liara had chucked the unconscious Weedle with her mind. "Tali, you jinxed us!" Liara growled as she opened fire.

"Well sorry, but they are weak to Psychic just like you're weak to Bug, so sic 'em! I'll slow them down a little with a headwind!" Tali started blasting the small group of Beedrill, probably the equivalent of a colony, with Icy Wind. It forced them to fly harder against the headwind and narrow their eyelids so their camera-type eyes (another difference form the wasps they resembled) would not freeze up. That made them easier for Liara's Confusion pulses to knock down one by one.

Two of the Beedrill managed to make it close enough to stab at Tali's suit, which, though it and her bio-electric fields held out the stingers, still allowed them to inject bio-electric field degrading chemicals onto the surface and thus "poison" her. That was of course just before Liara smashed them aside with Confusion and their barely-conscious compatriots dragged them off, buzzing and waving their arms angrily before shaking their heads while flying away. "Well then let's get through Viridian today, we don't want to be surprised by them tomorrow or at night." James growled as Tali's fields worked on countering the field-draining chemicals that were supposed to over time destabilize the field matrix strength. Of course, it usually wore off before a day was over, but Pokémon weak for a day could be hunted down without nearly as much danger as full-strength Pokémon. It was after all a Pokémon-eat-Pokémon world, even though predation events were incredibly rare and poison was usually to shoo away irritating intruders anyhow.

Viridian Forest proved painfully annoying even though they managed to find a crapload of shit for lack of better terms, including a Full Restore, Dire Hit, Blue Flute, TM77, Leaf Stone, Max Ether, and a lot of mushrooms (which they left there since they had no plans to actually use TMs and thus did not need to re-learn any moves or anything like that). There were five young Bug Catchers around, all with painfully low-levelled Pokémon, which they easily cut through despite Liara needing to drink down a Potion halfway through a battle before wiping her mouth and knocking out an enemy Caterpie with a crushing blow of the bottle. Then they'd battered their way out of the Forest by force, stumbling into Pewter City just before nightfall and limping into the Pokémon Center after cranking Tali up a full level in one day, which was not as easy as one would think, involving battling at least a hundred wild Pokémon for each of the two, one every few minutes… (Ethers were used regularly). Even then Liara didn't quite make the next level according to the Pokédex scan of power level compared to analyzed max power for the individual.

Needless to say, they cleaned themselves up quickly, then just flopped onto the Pokécenter beds and fell asleep right away. Tali tucked her short legs closer to her body, drawing the length of her legs sticking out the bottom of her conical main suit section in far enough it could just be tucked under the cone before settling down on her side of James' bed. Liara on her side of John's bed was already asleep, hair still in the protective polarized bio-electric fielded screen it usually was unless she was VERY relaxed and feeling VERY safe.

* * *

><p>Liara woke up to find that she was sleeping on something warm, soft but firm, and that thudded regularly, that her hair was getting in her eyes, and that she was sensing a warm and fuzzy vibe in the room. <em>What the hell?<em> She thought, frowning before she set her hair into the helmet pattern it usually took, then shoved whatever the object on her back was off, then rolled to one side. She squeaked when she fell off John's more or less clothed body onto the bed. "Wake UP!" She called in his ear, and then leaned back in time for him to catapult upright, looking around before rubbing his eyes and smoothing his sleeping shirt.

John Shepard's hand landed on the other pillow and he frowned at how cool it was to the touch "Did I pull you on top of me again?" She rolled her eyes and nodded, John Shepard had a grand total of one fault: He liked pulling inanimate objects he was sleeping with (just sleeping) or in her case herself, onto his chest when he slept. However, she had observed that he didn't pull other living things close and radiated enough warm and fuzzy feelings in his sleep that it wasn't that bad anyways "Sorry, maybe I should sleep on the floor the next few times we're in a Pokécenter."

Liara glared at him, looking down at him so he could see her red eyes instead of just the hair helmet "I should slap you for suggesting that. Anyways, let's get ready to roll out and wander around Pewter a bit, maybe go check out the Gym and talk to Brock?" Brock was not a name per se, in fact, it was the title borne by the leader of the Pewter Gym, as it was a man named Brock who'd founded the Gym. Most of the time the Leader would simply refer to himself as what his actual name was, but when it came to official gym challenges he was always "Brock".

John raised an eyebrow "I hope you're not thinking of battling him, I mean, even your parents working with my mother coordinating barely managed to win two-on-six against his Pokémon, so they're all at least level fifty-something…" Pokémon with levels above about forty were quite rare outside Gyms, as it took a lot of dedicated training or facing down supreme odds to pull even one such Pokémon off. It also REQUIRED a strong Pokémon-trainer bond (and/or one hell of a long time together), but that was another matter entirely…

Liara shook her head "Nah, just think we should drop in and talk. Of course, after I learn Magical Leaf and evolve to Gardevoir I might stand a chance due to teleporting and such, assuming one-on-one battle, not two-on-two, which would be messy." She saw a sudden image of her head lying on the ground with a long, bloody smear where her body had been flash through her trainer's mind and rolled her eyes "We Pokémon are tougher than that, it would take quite a few shots after I got knocked out to turn me into paste like that…"

"That doesn't stop me from worrying about my friend." John stated as he got to his feet and tried to tousle Liara's hair affectionately… only to find his hand running along a surface more durable than a steel helmet with only the two gems disturbing the hemispherical hair coverage. He chuckled at that and moved off to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Unlike many others, the Shepard family did not have much in the way of body odour and thus only required a shower/bath once per couple days unlike some who needed to shower every morning and every night.

"SNORUNT!" Tali cried happily as she managed to wake her trainer up by breathing on him (and making him sneeze from the cold air) "Don't worry, I can remember that I'm not as small as I used to be." She added with a grin when James catapulted upright, then covered his head with his arms.

When she'd been less than a year old, Tali had liked riding around on top of James' head, though a lot of people thought she was a Snorunt hat, the more annoying ones usually got a snowball to the back of the head when they weren't looking. Of course, as she'd grown and her suit had grown with her, until now when she was over a meter tall already, Tali had had to get out of the old habit since she'd gotten too heavy to sit on a human's head like that.

"Hey Tali, want to go explore Pewter?" The Snorunt chattered happily at the suggestion and pointed to her gleaming white, already brushed teeth which were visible after she'd opened the mouth of her suit.

* * *

><p>The crew went down for breakfast after paying their rent and checking out, then left to wander around Pewter, incidentally nabbing Apricorns, dropped items, and such along the way. Liara got the Wise Glasses and put them on, the little HUD system activating and identifying some extra targeting areas on everyone for maximum damage. It would also identify better block points and angles of incoming projectiles and Special attacks. It was how Wise Glasses were able to enhance Special stat ratings by 10% just by equipping them after all, with an in-built HUD system. It wasn't that high-powered however, so it could only do so much…<p>

Now, they were at the Pewter Gym, which looked like a granite brick from the outside, unsurprising considering Brock dealt in Rock-types. "Hey Brock!" John called as soon as he came in.

There was a snort form the other side of the rock garden and arena area, which was, as usual, inside a containment shield designed to stop outgoing attacks but allow strikes from above and below such as Draco Meteor and Dig. "John Shepard… recognized you the moment you came through that door, come on over." When they actually saw Brock, he frowned at the Ralts and Snorunt accompanying the twins. "This is Ares' little girl, I presume? I do hope you're not here to challenge me, she's nowhere near strong enough for that yet. The Snorunt's the same from what I can see, I recommend evolving…" He scanned the Snorunt with his Pokédex before continuing "her before you challenge me, if you plan on doing the Gym Challenges."

James waved it off before sitting on a rock opposite the slightly older man "We'll worry about that later, how has life been for you?"

"Meh, not bad, the young trainers coming to challenge me without any idea of how powerful Pokémon can be get their asses kicked enough that I get more than enough money to keep things afloat, doesn't rock my boat much."

"So how have those old anime shows' revenues treated you?"

The guy snorted "With the newest remakes my dad participated in, along with the Ketchum, Berlitz, etc. families, dumb brats still come up to me regularly and ask if I hit on girls like that Brock of old did. They also stare in wonder at the fact that I have grey eyes, I mean come on, rocks are grey, what were they expecting?"

John chuckled "Through all the remakes of that fantasy series that someone just called 'Pokémon' for some reason Brock has always been shown with slits for eyes, maybe they thought that was actually true?"

"Well sorry, it isn't, the kids who ask about my eyes still haven't realized fiction is different from fact. Hell, hear one of those kids started up a crew called Team Rocket just like the anime ones, thinks just because his name is Giovanni he can pull off being a criminal mastermind. If you get a chance, kick his ass like that fictional Ash Ketchum guy does in the anime shows, will ya?" Brock smirked as he watched some of his Rock-type Pokémon slug it out in the arena for fun, the injured ones dragging themselves to or being pulled over to the healing machine.

They talked some more before Brock had to go back to work and crush a couple more kids' Pokémon dreams into dust. John and James watched a kid from Sinnoh (on vacation apparently) get his lone Pokémon, a Roserade, pounded into the ground. "Type advantage really isn't everything…" John muttered to the dejected kid and her downcast Pokémon as they walked out after the Roserade's ball had gone into the healing machine.

Brock spoke up as he clapped the kid around one shoulder "He's right, kid, your Roserade is strong, but it needs to level up a lot more to reliably beat more than two of my Pokémon in a row, and you should also get a bigger team of assorted types to deal with all sorts of threats. Remember, I have six Pokémon, and even though you managed to finish two with Giga Drain, my Pokémon were able to use Endure to survive your first strikes and so the final Giga Drain effect was too small to make enough of a difference by the time I brought out a hard-hitter to take you down the rest of your endurance." He was talking to the Roserade by the end, who nodded in understanding.

The Roserade replied in a moderately-pitched male voice "Got it, will consider for future applications."

The girl nodded "Thanks for the Battle, Brock." Then she tugged one of her Roserade's hands, which stuck out of the "bouquets" that were more like three-barrelled Chainguns when it came to abilities such as Bullet Seed, and leading him toward the exit of the Gym "Come on, Romeo, let's get back to the Pokécenter, take a break and then we can see if we can wander around a bit an see the museum."

The Roserade had a smirk on his green-skinned, white-haired face as he walked along with his trainer, in his kind's usual all-green uniform "Lead the way, mistress."

"You did well knocking out two Pokémon that were far higher levels than you, enough to nullify type advantage… better than either of us expected… remember to clean yourself up before bed tonight." The trainer was saying to her Roserade, who seemed to brighten up a bit from the dejected slump in his shoulders he had before.

"Roserade is a Grass type, Poison subtype, if she's asking him to get rid of the poison before bed…" Brock's eyes were narrowed as he spoke in calculated fashion. John was about to point it out when he said "Yes I know, my eyes are so narrowed they look like the anime stereotype for Pewter Gym Leader 'Brock'… anyways, that means she must be a Poképhiliac."

"Roserades don't look TOO different from humans…" John remarked.

Brock nodded slowly "Yeah, plenty of final evolutions look human-like" The quick darting of his attention to a certain green helmet-like curtain of hair went unnoticed by everyone except the occupant of said "helmet", since she sense his sudden attention shift. She rolled her eyes derisively at that. "Still, considering Roserade can use so many status-type abilities, I'm hoping he never turns abusive, Sweet Scent, Stun Spore, and so on are very dangerous. Hope she gets a fire-type and water-type so they can keep each other in check just in case. She doesn't have to get too close to either of the others, but they need to be ready to protect her if needed. Still, successful Pokémon-human relationships are not unheard of… I wish them the best."

"We do too, well, we better get going, Brock, nice talking to you, your Pokémon are as strong as I remembered, when we decide to take the Gym Challenge though, we'll have a nice battle, or a few, depending on how we do, right?"

The Rock-type Gym Leader known to most of the world as Brock nodded "That sounds good to me. I'll be seeing you another time, John and James Shepard, Ralts, Snorunt."

"See ya!" Liara waved as they departed, heading out of the city eastward toward Mt. Moon.

* * *

><p>AN: I evolved my Roselia to Roserade in Platinum before it could learn Petal Dance by levelling up, DAMN IT! I SHOULD HAVE LOOKED AT THE LEARN SET MORE! Then again, it's not that much of a loss since Confused status sucks balls, and I can always teach it, say, Energy Ball (Solar-beam takes charge time, too risky) via TM.


	4. Watering the Flowers

A/N: In case I forget, remind me in a few years **story time** that they'll be meeting the trainer and her Roserade (now far above the level 30 he had been) again at Eterna City Gym, and yes, she is who you're thinking of.

If I want to be real there are only the following choices for Joker's end form: Flygon, Togekiss (though I think the cute factor should be reserved for Kelly), or Salamence. I mean, you can expect a caterpillar to become something that can fly, but looking at a Bagon, Togepi, or Trapinch, you won't immediately think it's going to ever fly.

Oh, and Chapter 40 of Reclaimers is moving along the assembly line far slower than normal because of the lemons and the fact that the computer has been moved. I'm not old enough to be reading lemons in plain sight, let alone writing them, ergo it may take a WHILE to get that on FFN. Sorry, but the one scanner in my home is currently right next to my computer and that means my parents typically stay about sixty centimetres away, and that is not good if you started lemon-writing before you were according to ESRB old enough to even PLAY Mass Effect. Therefore, that chapter will probably go up about August or something. I'm supposed to have time to use the computer for "whatever" every day, but we all know that's a joke when parents are involved.

I DON'T OWN POKÉMON, Otherwise, I would only put out _maybe_ 20 new Pokémon in Gen V, pretty much the starters and Legendaries if that. I mean, we need a way to get a Swampert or Blaziken without having to trade twice from Gen III… the old Pokémon in new combinations would be really nice to have.

* * *

><p>Chapter 4: Watering the Flowers<p>

Aka the most filler chapter I'll be writing in a while

_Cerulean City, Kanto, June 29, 2944_

Fortunately for the four-man crew, they had managed to catch the bus that went around Mt Moon, which meant they didn't have to cross on foot (which would have taken probably over a week… or two… or maybe more…) and were now in Cerulean. The Gym Leader here was traditionally addressed as Misty. The first time one had tried to change the tradition of names, the Pokémon anime series had been born and that particular orange-haired girl decided never to wear her hair in a ponytail, bob, or anything but down again. She had totally failed at blending in and even the current "Misty" who had a more brownish-orange hair colour was often accosted by questions from passing tourists as to why she wasn't an orange-head (she got her regular dose of facepalms from such tourists).

The bus ride was uneventful, other than watching with some curiosity as the young woman they'd seen before at Brock's Gym cuddle in the pair of seats they shared with her Roserade. He'd brought his hands out of the flowery barrel assemblies of his usual weapons and wrapped them around his trainer, having set the barrels in question to soft so it could work. Roserades were reasonably similar to humans with a few notable differences, such as the fact that their legs were a lot more flexible and a bit tentacle-like, similar to Roselias' legs, and of course their bouquets and smooth green skin. They were known for being the second most popular grass-type among Poképhiliacs, beaten only by Lilligant, and were the most popular Grass-type for female trainers who didn't want something too out of the human-ish range. Halfway through the ride, Liara and Tali got bored and trudged/waddled their way up the aisle to the lovebirds… well, love-plants, but whatever… who were reading books, the Roserade's cotton-like white hair forming a nest of sorts for the dirty blonde woman's cheek, which was resting on her (relatively) short Pokémon's head comfortably. The male Pokémon was first to notice their approach, thanks to his relatively heightened senses compared to humans. "Hello, is something the matter?"

"No, just thought you guys looked friendly, you fought well at Brock's Gym…"

The guy shrugged at that before replying in Pokéspeak. The woman's eyes were now fixed on the Ralts and Snorunt that were standing next to them in the aisle as she continued breathing slowly and rather deeply—Grass types were after all often renowned for their smell, which tended to be great around trainers they liked and absolutely vile near those they didn't. "Meh… I should have levelled up more, Level 43 is NOTHING when you're going up against Pokémon over level 60, even with type advantage and STAB" That stood for Same Type Attack Bonus, since Pokémon that specialized in manipulation of given elements were superior in fielding attacks of their elements… "It hurt, but failing Gardenia hurt more…" He added in a whisper, and shook his head sadly.

Gardenia, as the woman apparently was named, noticed the slight droop in her Roserade's bouquet barrels despite not understanding the string of syllables of "Roserade" and shifted him off her chest to sit up in his seat, then frowned at him "Is something the matter, Romeo?"

"Ralts, Ral? Alts?" That translated to "She named you Romeo? Seriously?"

The Roserade chuckled "Yes, she named me Romeo, Gardenia thought the name was nice. It was nothing, Gardenia, just a couple questions regarding Pokémon battles, as you can see they're not that high level, so they want to get advice if they can."

"How do you know I don't have an Ever-stone?" Liara asked curiously.

The Roserade shrugged "No Pokémon lets themselves get stuck with Ever-stones for too long, and by that I mean more than 25% the number of levels after a normal evolution would have proceeded, unless they are too underweight or frail to come out healthy. You, friend, are NOT underweight for a Ralts, enough so that you can evolve to Kirlia healthily if you need to do so. Oh, and from the air temperature around you I'm guessing you aren't that close to Glalie evolution yet, friend Snorunt."

Gardenia smirked at the pair of young Pokémon now sitting in the seats across the aisle "Romeo is quite smart, it's one of the reasons I was attracted to him in the first place." She ruffled the Roserade's cottony white hair affectionately.

They talked for a while, discussing the various more popular grass-type Pokémon and their pros and cons. It roughly came to the following: Budew-line Pokémon were most coveted for Roserades' triple-barrelled, full auto bullet seed barrage. After all, when the whirring of those arm-mounted barrels spinning up and preparing to spew either field-penetrator rounds for pure damage or explosive rounds for damage and knock-back was heard a battle was generally about to end. Bulbasaur-line was best for tanking and power, as their size and improved durability mattered greatly when it came to using physical attacks (often normal-type). The Chikorita line was balanced tanking (Meganium was in fact quite heavy) and special-class hitting power/range, and they were also popular for being much cuter than the Bulbasaur line and really cuddly (when not past Bayleef, that is). Oddish-line Pokémon were akin to Petilil and Lilligant in that they were popular for the flower/crown on their head being able to spit artillery-type strikes at the enemy from long range. The Treecko series was pure speed if you wanted to run circles around an enemy and take it down with a thousand paper-cuts, but it wasn't that popular overall. Cacnea and Cacturn were known for being good in deserts or against types weak to Dark, but they weren't that common thanks to people not liking their appearance. Turtwig line Pokémon were Tanks, no doubt about it, their speed was much lower than Bulbasaur line once it came to Torterra, but their momentum made up for it. Snivy was most certainly the most popular grass type outside the Roserade or Lilligant pair, since Serperior was quite excellent in almost all respects… except for Poképhilia, since it didn't have legs. Then again, it had vines that could function in the role… None of the REALLY popular (read: attractive physically) Grass types were exceedingly common unless you were a Poképhiliac, since many took a lot of Happiness to evolve fully and most trainers didn't bond closely enough with their Pokémon for that, but that was beside the point.

Eventually, though, the two young Pokémon went back to their friends and resumed working on their schematics for new gear, since they were planning to eventually take on the wild, wild world with superior hardware as opposed to just raw might. Of course, training normally was still important, since strength was what really mattered in league competitions, examinations, and the like, but that was another matter entirely, they were more concerned with what could happen if they pissed off a Legendary Pokémon. According to Tali's calculations her suit and the parts that passed on to her evolutionary options would afford more protection and field scaffolding than Liara's, though Liara would have far more raw power when she caught up in levels, but even then they would both need a lot of good hardware (e.g. the body armour stashed in their bags) to stall a legendary long enough for their friends to get away alive.

When they finally hit Cerulean (not literally) and said goodbye to Gardenia and Romeo the group walked over to the Gym, since James had noted Tali's problem with swimming back in Viridian, for a swim. Thanks to their mother's exploits with Liara's parents in the past, they were reasonably familiar with the Gym Leaders and got to pay the discounted fee for use of the pool facilities.

"Hey Misty, how are the challengers lately?"

The orange-brownish-haired woman snorted at that, watching her Gyarados and Sharpedo spar in the largest pool in the gym. "Even with the fee the League charges for each attempt, so many trainers still try it without even going to Brock's place first. He's nice and offers a discount to the dumber ones, and people who give him a REALLY good battle generally get most of their money back, but those dumb enough to come for me, well, they deserve the thrashing I give them. The occasional winners are all tough trainers, I don't go soft on them, the fact that they keep on asking about my hair is enough…" She growled the last part.

"Uh, okay… can Tali and Liara here learn to swim?"

Misty leant down to sort of ruffle Liara's hair (she encountered the usual hardened, polarized helmet through which the Pokémon in question was channelling bio-electric field energy) while looking at Tali "Ah, a Snorunt, and a Ralts, cute, you guys speak English? I heard your species can…"

"Yep, and I also think it would do us some good to learn to do more than doggy-paddle."

"Am I really going to swim with these?" Tali deadpanned, holding out her relatively short and stubby arms, as most of the limbs were inside the suit and the outer gloved arms could even be drawn back into the cone if needed.

"You can swim using pretty much anything that can move." Misty stated cheerfully. "It's just a matter of not being able to use Surf to cross long distances of water."

"Just you wait, when I evolve, I'm going to be a hovercraft…" Tali grumbled as they walked down to the shallow end of the huge pool. "Is this the only pool here?"

"In a word, yes, by labelling this as the largest pool that would mean the toilets around here are the smallest pools." Misty stated with a wicked grin as the two combatants at the other end swam up to her for pats on the head before looking at the newcomers with interest. Liara tried to hide behind John's leg like she did her mother's dress when she was just a hatchling as she watched the Sharpedo nervously, the Water/Dark type stared back at her with a wide grin.

"Hello little girl." It turned out to be male by the voice, though all the humans could hear was syllables of "Sharpedo."

"Hello." Liara squeaked from her place sort of behind her trainer (it was hindered by that fact that she was tall enough that she was looking at the small of John's back).

The Sharpedo slapped one of his fins over his eyes as best he could and let out a hissing , watery sigh "I hate it when Psychics get all nervous around me, just because I'm part Dark-type…"

"I thought the Cerulean Gym had a lot of medium-sized pools?" John questioned, ignoring the Pokémon antics other than spreading his posture protectively in front of Liara.

Misty shrugged "I renovated it. This is a more open feeling and people don't accidentally run into pools nearly as often because there's only one big, really damned obvious pool left."

James nodded, watching the two water-types swimming around languidly while watching their trainer and guests "Right, so are we allowed to teach Tali how to swim better in here? Liara too… since they've been so busy learning sciences and maths that they haven't had too much time to work on sports and the like ever since they've hatched."

"Well, yes, go ahead… your Ralts seems to be a bit scared of my Sharpedo." The aforementioned Sharpedo was groaning, showing all his thousands of knife-like teeth, after Gyarados whacked him over the head for scaring their guests and Liara was literally trembling at the jaws that had opened almost as wide as her entire torso. "Sharpedo, you mind going back in your ball for a bit? Gyarados?"

"Sharp" The Sharpedo shrugged as best it could before it was put back in the quantum storage device called a Pokéball by the red beam thing. Then Misty looked at Gyarados, who seemed to be edging away from the ice-type that approached the water and the Water/Flying type.

"Right, you don't like Ice-types much, they sting…" Misty muttered, Gyarados nodded, rolling his eyes, before Misty took out his Pokéball and pulled him back in. "So, Tali, Liara, feel free to take a swim." She gestured out toward the shallow half of the gigantic pool.

* * *

><p><em>Cerulean City, Kanto, July 3, 2944<em>

Just before they left Cerulean, Misty pulled Liara aside to chat. "I can just imagine what'll happen here when you pester John into taking the League challenge… same thing that happened here when Hannah was here with your parents. My Sharpedo kicked their butts for a while but then your Dad went berserk when he hit your mom a bit too hard, Close Combat might not be a good move for staying safe, and your father hadn't fully mastered it yet, but it did a number on my friend since he was lower level at the time. Still, your parents both came out pretty badly, since your mother was only on the cusp of evolution to Gardevoir at the time. And yes, your father was much higher level, but not enough to learn Close Combat naturally yet, suspect seeing your mom beat up pushed him to it. Kicked Sharpedo's finned ass just before Hannah would have forfeited the match. She was a decent trainer, but… didn't really have a good idea of when to take damage. Hope you offer a better match-up, after all, I've hear Oak ranting and raving about your gene set and levelling up thing every time we have a meeting. It was getting tiring… come back here when you hit about level fifty or so and we can have a good match."

Liara used Growl in irritation as she glared at the semi-brunette through her polarized hair-helmet, locked in place since she wasn't utterly relaxed "RAL! RALTS!" Then she finished with "Ow!" as Tali used Bit on the back of her helmet, the Dark 0type energy infused teeth of her suit sending a tremor through her bio-electric field and weakening the field strength significantly. "What was that for?"

"Language, Liara." Tali stated frostily.

Misty chuckled "You were swearing at me weren't you? Well good, at least you're a feisty one."

"Ralts…" Liara grumbled before switching back to English "Sorry, Misty, I'll see you sometime later… Let's get back to the Pokémon Center, I don't want to just rely on natural regeneration for this one."

* * *

><p>AN: Will be changing Vermillion City's name a bit, an extra L just so I don't have to add to dictionary again (already added for Donny from SC2). I know Misty would never own a Sharpedo but let's say she does.

Note that I'm changing scales a bit so that Pallet is really close to Viridian by Saffron is pretty far from Cerulean.

* * *

><p><em>Saffron City, Kanto, July 16, 2944<em>

Fortunately, the walk from Cerulean to Saffron was not overly long and the crew made it without incident… only two days of walking and battling wild Pokémon in between and lots of pit stops. It was an irritating experience but at least Liara made another level… up to level 14. ("Only six more before I get to be a Kirlia!" She had cheered.) Technically, even a Ralts could be fully matured without evolving… once it was PHYSICALLY large enough (about 1.6 meters or more) to start being able to lay eggs, but the vast majority of Pokémon evolved at least to a First Evolution f not a final before laying eggs or before being physically large enough to lay eggs. Besides, some institutions had limits on what evolutionary stages they admitted (generally later stages), though usually the limits were quite relaxed if the Pokémon relied on Happiness to evolve.

Needless to say, the warm attitude of the current "Sabrina" was a bit of a shock to Liara and Tali as they had been expecting another psycho bitch due to watching the Pokémon anime series. Surprisingly, Sabrina had laughed her ass off when she sensed the thought from Liara, then calmed down a bit… "That's exactly why I DON'T put on a psycho bitch act, it catches people who don't think about it much off-balance." She winked with a smirk at where the gaping Ralts' eyes were under the green polarized screen of hair. "Expect wild personality swings though…" Suddenly she seemed to remember something and nabbed her Pokédex out to scan Liara "AH, you're that Ralts… and she's the Snorunt Oak keeps raving about, 252 EVs for everything and maxed-out IVs, huh? Well, I'll expect to battle you someday, you'll be able to put up a good fight, I'd think. Learn Shadow Ball, will ya?" She patted both young Pokémon on the back with a broad grin.

Needless to say, they soon decided it was better to go back to the Pokémon Center for some rest and inventorying their Quantum-storage-equipped backpacks for all the goodies they'd randomly stumbled onto on their way to Saffron and around the city. They decided it might do them some good to head east to Lavender Town after that. According to their plan, they would go to Lavender, then loop south to Vermillion and back to Saffron before heading west to Celadon and then south to Fuchsia City. After that they would head over to Cinnabar Island by ferry and from there to Pallet, again by ferry, hopefully by then Liara would have evolved… and they could go back through Viridian to the Indigo Plateau and the Kanto Institute of Pokémon.

Needless to say, there were several unfortunate events along the way…

* * *

><p><em>Lavender Town, Kanto, July 18, 2944<em>

"STOP PULLING!" Liara screeched as John, James and Tali tried pulling her legs to extract her from the ground. Unfortunately for all of them, they went on a tour of the Pokémon Tower or whatever it was called (she didn't bother looking at the sign)… and run into a few Ghost-type Pokémon that had spooked her so bad she'd fallen out of a fourth-floor window. With the automatic impact safety feature of her gems forming things that were close to psychic energy horns kicking in, that meant she was now literally stuck head-down in the ground after impact, her hair helmet and the energy horns projecting from her gems taking most of the impact. Of course, she was still very glad Pokémon bone structure was much tougher than that of an average human, so she didn't break her neck. "Damn it, I'm going to try teleporting…" Her body glossed over with light, overalls included, and reappeared a short distance away, falling gently on her head again before it toppled over. Sure, Ralts had very large heads compared to their bodies, but it wasn't grotesque or that overwhelming… As for her overalls coming with her when she teleported, it was one of the other reasons Ralts-line Pokémon rarely wore other clothes. According to her father "The first and last time I have ever seen a Gardevoir use Close Combat was when I teleported us to a pseudo-date… that she'd dressed up in something else for." In other words, teleporting, if one was not careful, usually did not bring other clothing, resulting in embarrassing situations, EXTREMELY angry dates, and Pokémon suddenly learning moves they should by all rights not have a clue how to use. Incidentally, Benicia had failed to use Close Combat on subsequent attempts for years… so she learnt Focus Blast to balance out as base power ratings were the same… though accuracy was much worse. Liara hoped to learn Close Combat someday without an embarrassing situation to spark it. It was why she spent all her free time sparring with Tali in physical combat (outside their regular training time as it was more exercising Fighting-type energies, which neither of them were exactly suited to).

The fact that she was seeing red as she got up meant she had to take several deep breaths to calm down and try focusing her anger into a Focus Blast to help siphon it off. Needless to say, her being such low level the sphere of energy fizzled out, but it helped erase the red screen over her vision and the need to give a random group of laughing people a short distance away a good psychic shockwave. "Let's get moving." Liara growled, giving the random crowd one more red-eyed glare as she stumbled into motion.

* * *

><p>AN: Remind me about the Vermillion Gym when they're about to challenge it, I might forget to include the artwork they left there.

* * *

><p><em>Vermillion City, Kanto, July 23, 2944<em>

Lieutenant Surge, as his position made the title his name, banged his (blonde-haired) head repeatedly against the front door of his Gym rather pathetically, groaning, attracting a small crowd of bystanders who weren't used to his non-badass side "Why, ARCEUS WHY DID I LET YOU FOUR SPRAY-PAINT THE DOORS?" He shouted dramatically to the heavens.

Tali giggled and wrung her gloved hands on her stubby suit arms together a bit awkwardly "Maybe it was because we agreed to paint something nice about you, see, you're so tough we felt the public needed to be warned about your toughness."

Surge sighed "Yes, but I DON'T think a giant sign saying" he put up finger quotes at that "'Bring a Surge Protector, it's your LIFE and your Pokémon on the line!' is a good caption for a noob trainer with his Pokémon cowering behind a gigantic Surge Protector for cover from me" a certain someone's gang of electric-type Pokémon were also present around his image "is very complimentary…" All four miscreants burst into laughter at that, no longer able to contain themselves, and started rolling about on the ground laughing their asses off. Surge sighed "Well, I can't say the art is bad per se, it's very realistic, good job, boys, I'll be making you pay for this when you finally challenge me though. And yes, I KNOW you'll eventually be taking the League Challenge… though I hope Brock, Misty, Sabrina, and whoever else you face don't cheese" That was the same as cream except without innuendo and much more drawn-out and painful "you first. Now get out of my Gym area before I decide to boot you out!" He scowled, and then turned back to the giant wall mural, muttering "Should I even bother trying to scrape this off?"

* * *

><p><em>Celadon City, Kanto, August 28, 2944<em>

They'd spent quite some time in Saffron watching Contests and the like, since Liara and Tali seemed to have a thing for the Pokémon anime series song, at least, the first season… "I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was…" Liara was singing, again, before glaring at the two guys and Snorunt. "Am I not growing annoying with so many repetitions?" She asked, wondering if they had tuned her out completely. She had hit Level 19 by now, and was beginning to feel Evolution begin to loom closer.

"Go on, Liara, we're kind of doing this right now." Tali gestured to the blueprint papers she'd removed from one of her (absurdly many) suit pockets and begun laying out on the desk. Then she turned back to James "I haven't quite figured out how to make these cannons achieve the needed particle beam effect for a Hyper Beam yet, but the engineering should be sound…" She pointed at the two cannons mounted in an armoured turret atop the tank design she had, since she figured though Pokémon were tough mechanizing things wouldn't hurt, at least, it would let them take a couple more hits (especially when it came to high-powered moves such as Hyper Beam, Mega Horn, Giga Impact, etc.) before going down, and dole out a bit of damage in the process.

"And I don't mind you singing, it sounds nice." John stated absently from where he was going over some paperwork as well, James snickered at that.

Liara sulked a bit "Fine, maybe I'll just go watch some TMs, don't feel like doing anything else right now." They'd already dropped by the Gym in time to see more new trainers get thoroughly trounced by Erika's powerful Grass-type Pokémon and pay up as per League rules. It was after all how the League kept itself afloat…

Believe it or not, Rain Dance could work very well indoors to cut down on the power of fire-type moves (though it meant the ceiling of the gym typically became rather clouded as water was summoned into the air and condensed by the energies manipulated by Pokémon), and even Charizards had a hard time dealing with moves such as Bullet Seed when it involved dual-linked Chaingun style firing at a flying target. The move differed depending on the Pokémon, whereas Roserade fired deluges of small-calibre rounds from its rotary gravitic accelerator barrels that its fingers, hands and arms could reform into, most other lines of Grass-type Pokémon used larger, higher-powered shells but fired them at a rather slow rate.

* * *

><p>AN: For Roserade's Bullet Seed, think the Gatling Cannons from Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge firing at incoming air units (like in the Game Start Cinematic), for Bulbasaur-line, think something more akin to a Spore Cannon from Starcraft 2.

* * *

><p><em>Fuchsia City, Kanto, September 19, 2944<em>

After several weeks worth of walking along the Route between Celadon and Fuchsia, only resting in Pokémon Centers that dotted the path (to house tired travellers), Liara T'Soni stumbled into the city, followed by her equally tired friends, and fell flat on her face. "Why, WHY? The damned Pokédex says I'm level 20 and well beyond the mass required to evolve, so WHY AM I NOT EVOLVING YET?" She screamed at the uncaring heavens.

"Stop being a drama queen, Liara, I have a lot more levels to go before I can evolve, I want to have Crunch down before I go to Froslass." Tali growled in irritation as the oversized traffic pylon that her suit was slowly trudged along.

"Let's go to the Pokémon Center and take a rest, maybe we can find out what's happening with you there." John stated, picking up the rather large (by now) Ralts in his arms and setting out.

When they finally checked in and after Liara and Tali had passed through the healing machine, they crowded around the computer "Some Pokémon evolve at the beginning of the level required, some in the middle, and some at the end, do not fret if your Pokémon doesn't evolve when the average level is. Even if it is large enough, evolution may be delayed somewhat."

Liara sighed "Well that's a relief, besides, I'm definitely going to make at least one more level before we're back in Pallet."

* * *

><p>AN: As I said, it'll be lucky if Chapter 40 of Reclaimers comes out before September, because I want to refine it so that it will be good, and yes, expect a lot of lemons as well as some nuggets of plot information. I'm not entirely sure if I'm joking about Azeroth yet…

And yes, I am still alive.

REVIEW!


	5. The First Evolution

A/N: **THEME SONGS!** Yes, I'm planning on adding theme songs into my fics, but not yet, later stories will feature them. Oh, and when I do, and when I reference the Pokémon anime I shall reveal a few minor things about the women Ash adventured with, such as the fact that the real Dawn (who was co-champion of Sinnoh for quite some time with Cynthia until the latter retired) will get a Chimchar instead of the Piplup she does in the anime. Infernape of all things is cuter than Empoleon, Torterra doesn't even compete, and considering the Fire/Fighting type is badass and not cute, that's saying something. Oh, and Infernape is fastest AND has more base stat total. Flamethrower or Flare Blitz are likely to OHKO Torterra with STAB and type, and Empoleon will go down to Close Combat with STAB and type.

I finally nailed down what Kelly is going to (eventually) be, a Pokémon that's all about being bubbly and being in harmony and loving everyone…

* * *

><p>Chapter 5: The First Evolution<p>

_Fuchsia City Gym, Kanto, September 27, 2944_

The pavement of the Gym floor cracked as Liara hit it, dazed after being hit with one too many attacks from Janine's Pokémon. Sure, Psychic-types were super-effective against Poison-type bio-electric energies, but sheer damage could still punch through, not to mention the fact that they were all at least three times her level number. Counting power however, she was something on the order of an average Level 31 Ralts, the extra level being to compensate for her genetic aka IV gifts. She couldn't fail here… not in this practice match. Janine had only agreed to take such a stupidly lopsided match because Liara wanted to toughen up a bit and it was "all fun and games anyways". Well it sure wasn't in this moment for her, pitted against a Wheezing that was at least level 75, probably around 80 by the sheer power it threw into its two strikes so far. Liara's eyes narrowed as she strained to get up, but her aching muscles weren't obeying her brain's screams to get up, fight and get a better chance at survival. She slumped back to the ground as her arms gave out. "Fuck… why couldn't you have sent a Croagunk instead?" She grunted as she tried to get up again only for an unfamiliar feeling to creep over her body, a sudden state of calm and clarity, the world seemingly slowing down and fading dark around her almost as if they were being washed out by a stronger light. Her consciousness faded as she fell back…

Outside her perspective, Janine and her Wheezing raised one eyebrow each while Liara's side of the field—the twins and Tali—were happy-dancing as the white glow of Pokémon evolution rippled outward from their friend. Pokémon evolved, or rather, underwent metamorphosis, by deploying a temporal dilation bubble immediately surrounding their bodies and activating normally dormant gene sequences found in all Pokémon in conjunction with their absurdly good gene repair/assimilation capabilities (source unknown). It allowed their bodies to undergo rapid growth and development. All Pokémon lost consciousness during the growth stage as to prevent any attempt to resist (a natural adaptation, as the panicked ones that try to fight it usually died) the transformation while their bodies drew on their quantum energy storage matrices to provide the needed energy to "evolve". This was why size mattered in evolution/egg-laying and why all actual wounds tended to emit light from the subcutaneous energy storage layer (the Pokémon counterpart to subcutaneous fat for normal Earth-origin animals).

* * *

><p>AN: Yes, I did just explain the anime law of wounds emitting light, and the one about how no one stops a transformation no matter how many times they've seen it. Also, here's a hint as to what Chakwas will be: "Attack of the Clones" plus "The Matrix".

* * *

><p>Pokémon typically came out of the process with mediocre energy left and preferred to rest after evolving than battle, but if need be could muster much greater power as their control refined, especially over the quantum storage spaces they held their attack-based stuff (e.g. water, poison spines, toxic sludge, etc.) in or the process that forged the energy they stored in their energy storage tissues into usable forms, such as in the organs Fire-types used to create near-plasma temperatures at safe distances from their own bodies and launch it in "Fire" type attacks. The extreme heat was one of the main reasons why Overheat and Flare Blitz either lost power overtime or had recoil damage, the organs could only fire overcharged shots so many times in a row before needing to rest and the near-plasma temperatures dealt damage to the user's bio-electric fields too. As for why moves such as Flame Wheel did not, the temperatures involved weren't too high for Fire-type bio-electric fields to hold off completely, ergo moves such as Flame Wheel had no recoil even though the user surrounded itself with fire.<p>

Liara's body reconfigured itself rapidly, seemingly even faster with the time-warp effect and the glow faded to reveal a body that had shifted only slightly proportionally, but was now clad in a changed set of overalls and with a shifted hairline, a wedge-shaped configuration down the front of her face with two solid cheek-guards of hair down each side of her face, not unlike an old Earth hoplite helmet configuration. The two red gems on her head were different though from the hoplite helmet stereotype (so was the fact that it was green hair, not gold-coloured metal). "I will win this…" she grumbled as she opened her eyes and pulled herself back up onto her new, much longer legs.

"Sludge Bomb!" Janine barked, continuing the battle after the couple seconds it took for Liara to "evolve" up into a Kirlia.

A quick twirl on her now much longer and more flexible legs brought Liara out of the line of fire at once, letting the detonation pass behind her with another ballet-style leap. "DIE!" She roared as she launched a much stronger Confusion thanks to power increase and actually managed to slam her opponent into the ground once.

"Toxic!" Janine shouted "Take her down!"

"Teleport out of the way…" John began, then trailed off when he realized Toxic was a giant cloud of poison gas "Liara, use this Antidote!" He tossed the bottle that she sprayed into her own face as Toxic tried to poison her badly… and failed. If this was against a wild Pokémon Liara would have been wearing her gas mask as John was wearing his, James had done the same while Tali added the required add-ons to her suit mouth (not needed thanks to the shield they had but precautionary anyways).

"Smokescreen!" Janine ordered and Liara had to try to sense her target with her mind. She tried to whip up a Magical Leaf but the attack fizzled out due to her low level and therefore control, the leaves losing their energy fields and only doing minimal damage, the few that actually hit their target in the smoke cloud.

"Explode!" Janine shouted just before her Wheezing slammed out of the smoke into Liara, bowling her over and disrupting any attempt at a Teleport before it overloaded its bio-electric fields for the destructive pulse. It was stronger than a Self-Destruct pulse thanks to better control (higher level) but it didn't completely drain the user's energy unlike Self-Destruct did. The yield though was rather… impressive to say the least. The reinforced, armoured ceramic floor of the gym acquired a large, shallow, burnt crater that stretched to the edge of the arena and was only stopped and contained by the shield dome around the arena holding the destructive energy inward.

It was testament to just how much even a fainted Pokémon could take when Liara was finally revealed from the smoke lying at the bottom of said crater, completely knocked out but physically not much more than lightly bruised and scratched (obviously, any animal from Earth or a human would have been atomized in the blast). Her outfit was singed somewhat and the biologically-synthesised material lay limp against the ground instead if standing up like armour as usual. Her hair laid limp too, having expended all the energy they had held within them to hold back the attack. Wheezing was barely afloat, hovering only a minute distance above the new floor level of the arena, panting in exertion.

"That was a much better match than I'd expected." Janine commented as she recalled Wheezing and the shield dropped.

"Thanks, now I gotta get Liara to the Pokémon Center." John was past Janine in a gust of wind not unlike typical anime characters as he surged toward his fallen friend. As soon as he tried to pick her up though she whimpered in pain and he recoiled a little. Then he grabbed for his Pokéball belt's only ball, a Luxury Ball, and recalled her, hoping the medical stasis program included would do its work as he ran out of the Gym shouting "Thanks for the match!"

"You're we—" Janine fell over laughing as the doors began to shut behind the young man. "he moved faster than I normally do, even with my ninja skills… tell him he's welcome."

"Okay, thanks Janine, we'll come around to see you sooner or later, when we actually decide to take the Gym challenges…"

"Hope you can fight me evenly, even three on six like most of my Gym matches are."

"You can count on it!" James said over his shoulder as he and Tali left the Gym at a more sedate pace.

* * *

><p><em>Pallet Town, Kanto, November 22, 2944<em>

"Liara?" Benicia asked in near-disbelief as she saw her daughter coming down the main street of the small town with her friends in the late evening hours when darkness was beginning to descend. She grabbed her green and white clothes, throwing them on before essentially yanking her mate, who was still putting on his combat boots (and grumbling about coitus interruptus), upright and teleporting both of them down to the sidewalk "Liara!" She shouted excitedly at the Kirlia who was now only about a head shorter than herself.

"Hey mum!" Liara shouted happily, waving her hands in the air, drawing a grunt from the young man beneath her.

"I think John's getting crushed by your weight, you're not the little Ralts you used to be anymore." Ares commented amusedly, looking at how his little girl was sitting on his former trainer's son's shoulders, astride his neck, her "trainer" holding onto her legs so she didn't fall off.

To Pokémon, the term Trainer meant something entirely different than it typically did for a human. Most Pokémon in the wild preferred to go about their own business, namely training, photosynthesizing/chemo-synthesizing, or, rarely, hunting. However, if they were caught, they usually went with the trainer, since it offered a good way to travel the world and see new things for free. It also meant more types of opponents and a first-aid kit following you around, but that was another matter. The reason more expensive Pokéballs offered higher catch rates was less because of the slightly stronger containment, though it was still laughable in that a baby Pokémon could bust out of a Great Ball or an Ultra Ball if it really tried, but because the Pokémon knew it was more specialized and cost more from their friends in cities. If they were caught by one while they were weakened enough to be impressed by the trainer and his Pokémon (or were persuaded by said Pokémon) they typically went with it as "He/She has enough money to buy this so I can expect a more comfortable journey around the land."

"I know." Liara called back before pulling her legs up and jumping gracefully off her best friend's shoulders, doing a little twirl in mid-air before landing in front of her grinning parents, who pulled her into a hug as her little brother scampered out of the house.

"Liara! You're home!" Mir yelled as he used Tackle (with hug included) on his sister's legs, nearly toppling her before she sidestepped to stabilize herself again.

"Yeah, we'll be home for a while until we have to leave for school, fought enough trainers along the way and Liara evolved already, so the problem is sort of solved…" John explained.

"That's nice to hear, did you guys have fun?" Benicia asked.

"Yeah we did, I almost beat a level 70 or so Wheezing one-on-one!" Liara shouted excitedly.

Benicia laughed a little internally, careful to shield the thought, it was kind of obvious the Almost part was an exaggeration… a surface scan of the memory her daughter was presenting proved that the only thing making it really a matter of "almost" was the Wheezing using Explode, a highly draining move to oneself. "Wow, amazing, and you've gotten so beautiful already… the more positive feelings a Kirlia gets the more beautiful or handsome it becomes, seems about right. Then again I guess that's what comes with journeying with your best friends…" Benicia trailed off a little, thinking bitterly about what she had seen of the future so far, they would definitely be more than friends, but for how long… she didn't know, and she couldn't see. Her daughter's future seemed to be a blind spot to her, as was her son's… That bothered her somewhat, but time would tell… time would tell. "Have you started developing secondary sexual characteristics yet?"

Ares and Tali were laughing their asses off as Liara seemed to use a combined fire and water type move of some sort so that steam billowed out from under her hair-helmet from her ears "MOM!" Then Tali shut up abruptly, Kirlias were not supposed to use any fire type attacks other than maybe Will-O-Wisp… if she learnt Flamethrower, Blast Burn, or hell, even Flame Wheel would do it, their future sparring sessions would take on a whole new dimension with both sides weak to each other and statistics crushing Tali utterly… That's assuming Liara didn't run off an absurdly high Special Attack stat and Shadow Ball to kick her ass. Tali didn't want to be a Glalie, even though that was Dark and Ice type, and Liara's only Fighting-type option, Focus Blast, wasn't rated high in accuracy for a good reason, she wanted to be a Froslass, which meant she would get totally raped by Liara if she wasn't careful about it.

"I'm serious, about two years or so into your Kirlia stage is when the average Ralts-line member starts maturing physically, though you spent slightly longer than typical as a Ralts so you might start maturing a bit earlier…" Benicia stated bluntly. "Anyways, don't be too alarmed and overact if you sense some… undesirable and desirous thoughts from others, you're becoming a big girl now."She cut her daughter off before she could start "Yes I know you hate showing off and stuff but you are near such positive emotions especially towards you that it's hard not to be beautiful. Just don't kill anyone for talking to your chest when you're evolved again, alright?"

"Can't we have this talk in private Mom?" Liara growled "We're gonna be around for a WHILE after all…"

"Alright, alright baby, let's get you all some food, and you can tell your brother about your little tour around Kanto."

Liara shrugged "We didn't see much, mostly we took buses, it's good to have a rich trainer…"

"Am I supposed to say it's pleasant to be reduced to an ambulance, pack mule and cash bag?" John spliced in at that moment, interrupting the two Psychic Pokémon's conversation.

"I didn't mean it like that, John, it was just a bit more comfortable than a typical trainer journey would be… then again we weren't exactly doing THAT much training in the wild and you had your bikes anyways whenever we didn't want to bus." Liara still remembered the bike road on their way to Fuchsia. She'd have to be careful with speeding now, as her leg pieces were skin-tight, though fortunately they wouldn't camel-toe, scrunch or do anything embarrassing as they were in a way part of her, and her tutu was typically limp when she was so relaxed and happy. She had no desire to shove her ass in someone's face anytime soon… especially when she actually began developing an ass, which would be some time from now, hopefully.

"True, true, I think we should all go home… it's getting dark and we should go to sleep. I for one am tired from all the travelling." John responded, raising his hand as if in a vote, noticeably sagging a bit with fatigue, the dock was, contrary to popular belief, not as close to Pallet Town as one would think, especially not with a Kirlia who weighed well upward of forty kilograms bouncing on one's shoulders happily the entire way.

"Sorry Liara persuaded you into carrying her around like that." Ares stated cheerfully as the guy stumbled past him, clapping the boy on the shoulder. "I'll go talk with your mum for a bit while Benicia tries to stop Mir from glomping his big sister again. Then again I think her dodging skills are sufficient anyhow."

"Sounds fine by me, Liara's been putting on weight since she evolved, it's getting kind of noticeable, and she seems to be having a growth spurt." John stated blandly.

Ares snorted "Why else do you think Benicia asked about whether she hit puberty yet? If she hasn't started yet, she'll have started within the next year, just saying, don't be surprised when Liara begins to get over-conscious about privacy and stuff."

"What do you mean by that?" Tali asked suddenly.

Ares shrugged, looking down at the Snow Hat Pokémon "Locking the bathroom door, for example."

John shrugged "She does that anyways, and she likes privacy…"

"Huh, she might be closer than I thought… then again she never was oblivious unlike most other kids…" Ares stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"Heh, at least I never have to do anything like that." Tali stated cheerfully "When I sit on a toilet the suit goes over the whole thing anyways and even the airlock-thingy doesn't expose anything. Besides, usually I use the internal tank thing anyways, or excrete frozen blocks."

"Yes, I remember when you were younger and we had to deal with that." James commented dryly.

After some more laughter and such, they were all home again, having battled the required number of trainers, made not even an inkling of a dent in the Shepard family fortune, and prepared for years stuck in the Kanto Institute of Pokémon.

* * *

><p><em>Kanto Institute of Pokémon, Indigo Plateau, January, 2944<em>

On the sprawling Indigo Plateau which dominated the center of the roughly ellipsoid continent the Kanto and Johto regions were set on, was the most prestigious university on Earth II. This was, of course, the Kanto Institute of Pokémon, only named that because the campus was somewhat closer to Kanto and had been founded by Kanto residents. In the sprawling compound near the sea, in a rare piece of plains near sea level, laid the campus, tracts of woodland provided ample habitat for woodland Pokémon, including Jungle species (though most preferred the huge bio-domes available to them), the rocky plateau behind the facility gave plenty of space to rock, flying and ground types, while water types swam about in the sea in front of the facility. All in all, it looked more like a resort than a university, even in winter, when most of the Pokémon were indoors except the Ice types and other cold-resistant species.

"Our dorm room is right next door to… The residence of the school's Nurse Joy." Liara trailed off "They only have one Nurse Joy here? I'd thought there would be more."

"Maybe there are students studying how to care for Pokémon?" John wondered.

Tali waved him off as she waddled ahead into the suite the four of them would be sharing, being in one of the newer buildings meant it had a microwave, fridge, and sink in a shelf that was part of the living room, with two small couches included. There was a bathroom and two bedrooms as well, each quite spacious with two-person beds "Nobody does the more sophisticated things in Pokémon healthcare, or police work, except the Nurse Joys and Officer Jenny's, I wonder why…"

"Who cares? Let's settle in and get ready for the beginning of term…" James stated cheerily, the two of them carrying his and Tali's things into their room, the one nearer the bathroom. The Snorunt had brought a large computer unit she'd assembled herself, it was a sort of supercomputer that needed an Ice type or fridge to work continuously because the cooling system wasn't good enough to keep up at max operating capacity. Tali tended to use Icy Wind into the innards of the machine when it got too hot.

"Meh, well, we can drop by the Nurse Joy's place and say hi sometime…" John stated as he and Liara entered the other room, setting their computers down on the shelf part of their huge desks. Then they started emptying their clothes into the shelves under said computers and the wall closet. Finally they unpacked their computer accessories and monitors and laid them out next to one another, leaving enough distance between the monitors and the edges that they could still write things down if needed. Then they left to investigate the bathroom, finding the shower stall a bit small but otherwise the place to be wholly satisfactory.

* * *

><p>…Okay, so maybe there was something a LITTLE bit unsatisfactory about it. The fact that many Pokémon were considered sentient and such meant that…<p>

"A Kirlia recognizes you as its trainer?" The guy's mouth was almost comically wide, they'd been talking about their Pokémon friends when James had mentioned he had a Snorunt and John a Kirlia. Then the guys and more than a few of the girls in the room, including many Pokémon, male and female, John counting at least one Glalie, Lopunny and other humanoid-ish Pokémon, almost swarmed them. "And you have a Snorunt that wants to be a Froslass?"

"Is there something wrong about that?" James asked slightly coldly.

A Lopunny, looking like a humanoid bunny with downy brown fur and needless to say the tits, ass and legs that came with her species (the males didn't have quite the hips, and no tits, but that was beside the point), laughed "There are a few reasons why a female Snorunt would want to be a Froslass, the most frequent case is that it's very attached to a creature that looks more like a Froslass than a Glalie." Her eyes twinkled in mischief.

"Well I am her best friend after all…" James stated with a shrug, not seeing the quick eye-roll the Lopunny gave.

"If you have a Kirlia, you must know what it evolves into." One of the trainers spoke up, leaning on her Pokémon.

"I'm evolving to Gardevoir" Liara had arrived on the scene with Tali in tow after they set up their computer gear completely "I'm right here, you know…"

"And so you are…" The Hitmonchan the girl was leaning on rumbling quietly. "You will be a great fighter someday, I can feel it…" The taller Pokémon, looking like a brown-skinned human with lots of flattened or simply curved surfaces—no grooves f muscles or such, other than the head crest—leant in closer "And of course you'll be very skilled in other departments, Psychic types always are." He guffawed as the Kirlia blushed.

Then he stopped abruptly when he realized she seemed to be growing larger in front of his eyes until she towered over him "NO." She stated before the world returned to normal for the Fighting-type Pokémon.

The Hitmonchan smirked "Exactly my point, mind tricks, my friend, mind tricks…"

"I think the reason they're talking about Gardevoir so reverently should be obvious." A Blaziken, looking like a vaguely humanoid fire-red and orange bird, stated from the back of the crowd. "They are after all the most popular Pokémon… in many, many ways." He stated. "And I don't mean just for Pokémon, they're popular among humans too."

"Can we talk about something OTHER than how my evolution line is the most human-like of all Pokémon?" Liara groused, knowing perfectly well what they were talking about and hoping her compatriots did the same.

"Ah we were just teasing, welcome to the crowd of new guys… fellow new guys. Yes, the name's incredibly lame but we're all freshmen here…" Someone stated as the conversation began to break up into distinct groups again.

"By the way, you guys are pretty prime specimens too. Not quite up to the standards those two are at, but pretty good nonetheless…"

John and James facepalmed, causing most of the females in the room to burst out into laughter "Not this stuff again…" The twins groaned at the same time.

* * *

><p><em>Kanto Institute of Pokémon, Indigo Plateau, March, 2944<em>

"Do you get the feeling that we sort of stick out from everyone else?" Tali whispered to Liara in Pokéspeak, there seemed to be two types of Pokémon around KIP, the normal-ish type (other than the fact that they, if they were students, were fluent in English), and the type that belonged to Poképhiliacs. They were neither, instead falling into the third category of "totally focused on studying and innovating".

Liara shrugged her white-clad shoulders nonchalantly as she edited a report she had been writing, responding in Pokéspeak as well. "Yeah, well, let's not worry too much about it… we're too young anyways."

Tali frowned at what that may have meant then shook it off, Liara was about as oblivious as they came, not quite the best trait for what was considered the most appealing female"Well let's get to the next class quickly so we can sit at the very front…" Tali stated in English. "Right boys?" She yelled as she ran past the two humans who'd been walking alongside the two Pokémon girls until then. There was no response, merely the two following as best they could.

* * *

><p>They'd finally remembered to say hi to the Nurse Joy next door. She'd welcomed them in and the first thing they spotted was a Togepi sitting on the counter, its stubby arms and legs waving about happily as it saw its "mommy". "Togepi!" It called.<p>

"Hey Kelly, some people decided to drop by."

"Tog, Pi, Togepi…" Kelly waved at the newcomers before looking at her "mommy".

"She says hello and that it's nice to meet us, and wonders when we're going to have dinner." Liara translated, though it seemed from Nurse Joy heating some food already that she didn't need translating.

"You're really cute!" Tali chirped, the Togepi covering her eyes with her hands and cried in sudden fear as the Snorunt's massive white "mouth" and huge, curve triangular grey visor came too close for comfort.

The Nurse Joy scooped up the Spike Ball Pokémon before cuddling it until the baby quieted down. "Sorry, Kelly's scared of anything with a really big visible mouth or bigger things coming too close to her all of a sudden. Once when we went outside for a walk she kept talking to a busy Mawile until it turned around in annoyance and opened its big mouth, then she ran back to me faster than a Rapidash."

"Sorry I panicked." Kelly said in Pokéspeak.

"Aw it's alright Kelly, I just forget that my visor is further from my face than it seems sometimes." Tali replied, scratching her head (well, her suit, it was a habit she picked up from James) in embarrassment.

"My name's Andrea Joy."

"John Shepard, James Shepard." John gestured to himself then his twin.

"Pleasure to meet you, almost no one bothers taking time to really talk to a Nurse Joy." Andrea replied simply, extending her hand for a firm handshake. The conversation went on from there, even while Andrea thought _No one really talked to me much since that creepy Brock boy a thousand years ago… could it be that my repulsion field is breaking down?_

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><p>AN: So they met Kelly and Andrea Joy (Chakwas), who's next? And what's up with Andrea?

Just calculated the stats of Liara's Level 100 form with conditions added and came up with these stats needed for **base** (instead of typical Gardevoir BASE stats) if the condition (1.5x the boost per level) was not applied: HP 150.5, Attack 121, Defence 121, Speed 143.5, Special Attack 211, Special Defence 196, Total 943. Yeah, if she didn't have her multiplier thing, even someone with the ability to have 252 EVs in everything at once and full IVs would need 943 base stat total to match up. Yes, I AM going to vastly amp up the pseudo-legendaries and the legendaries (and also make all the legendaries be higher levels), but there is after all a reason why she shall defy Gods and Demons… Though initially it may require the whole team to work together to wear down their ONE opponent before they can do shit, simply because Liara will level up glacially slowly. Obviously Arceus' base stat total will be something like 2500 to 3000 range…

Note that the formulas to calculate stats can be found on Bulbapedia and the base stat total required for someone to end up like Liara at level 100 was calculated by working backward _after_ calculating forward from Gardevoir stats with her condition multiplier on the increase (the level-dependent bracket or fraction only).

I'm thinking of starting work on my C&C series in parallel to this, since few seem interested in this fic… no one's reviewed for quite some time… So what will it be? Continuing Pokémon as the only major fic in progress? Or starting an alternate reality for C&C? Don't worry, in the alternate history I shall present, almost no technical knowledge is required, just about everything is explained in-story from weapons serial numbers to doctrines to logistics. It won't be too hard to follow.

REVIEW!


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